so dark the night pose a tough challenge represent it very hard to write about it in any detail without ruin it for those who haven not yet see it . since it remain quite obscure and that include just about everybody . the movie will strike those familiar with it director joseph h. lewis good know title in the noir cycle gun crazy and the big combo and even my name be julia ross and which in it brevity it resemble a an odd choice . for starter and the bucolic french countryside serve a it setting . steven geray and a middle age detective with the surété in paris and set out for a vacation in the village of ste . margot ( or maybe margaux ) . quite unexpectedly and he find himself fall in love with the inkeepers daughter ( micheline cheirel ) and even though she betroth to a rough hewn local farmer . but the siren song of life in paris be hard to resist and so she agree to marry him and despite the disparity in their age and which inevitably become the talk of the town . but on the night of their engagement party and she fail to return to the inn . soon and a hunchback find her body by the river . her jealous and jilted lover be the logical suspect and but he and too and be find dead . then anonymous note threaten more death and which come to pass . for the first time in his career and the bereaved geray find himself stump . a particularly weak script all but do the movie in while it play like bad cornell woolrich cross with the murder of roger ackroyd . but lewis do this creaky vehicle proud . he take his time near the beginning and but then the story and the storytelling gain momentum ( alas and just about the time the script break an axle ) . burnett guffey light and photograph the film and with an intriguing leitmotif of peer out of and peep into window while there also an effective score by hugo friedhofer and who supply aural menace to many noirs . a good deal of talent have be lavish on so dark the night and but at the end it boil down to not much more than a gimmick and not a very good gimmick at that . it a one trick pony of a movie .