IMDb RATING
6.2/10
102
YOUR RATING
A young singer meets a man who is the victim of a kidnap plot, and is assumed by the gang to be his girlfriend.A young singer meets a man who is the victim of a kidnap plot, and is assumed by the gang to be his girlfriend.A young singer meets a man who is the victim of a kidnap plot, and is assumed by the gang to be his girlfriend.
Photos
Peggy Ann Clifford
- Bessie
- (as Peggy Anne)
Bert Ambrose
- Band Leader
- (uncredited)
Sidney Monckton
- Bit part
- (uncredited)
Patricia Owens
- Bit part
- (uncredited)
Wally Patch
- Salvage Collector
- (uncredited)
John Rae
- Scottish Official
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOpening credits: The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious, and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional.
- Crazy creditsAlthough 'You Can't Do Without Love (1944)' and 'You Can't Do Without Love' are listed as one and the same film, some of the crew credits in the film titled 'You Can't Do Without Love' differ considerably from those listed under 'One Exciting Night' by IMDb.
Featured review
Light but low-key comedy-adventure
Young singer Vera Baker (Vera Lynn) comes to London to entertain a group of RAF personnel on leave. At Waterloo Station, a pick-pocket (Cyril Smith), on the verge of getting caught, sneaks a stolen wallet into her bag. The wallet contains a cloakroom ticket to a mysterious package belonging to Michael Thorne (Donald Stewart), a former theatrical producer, which the nefarious Mr Hampton (Frederick Leister) hopes to claim as his own.
Vera, meanwhile, has been sacked after an impromptu performance at the United Nations Welfare Service. Discovering the wallet, she tries to return it - and impress its owner with her singing abilities - yet both get set upon by Hampton's men.
The package, she learns, is a Rembrandt painting which has been sent to Thorne for safe keeping. Hampton then hires Vera to perform at a cabaret. On the night of the show, he captures Thorne and tries to kill him with the help of a doppelgänger. Vera's efforts to rescue the imperilled producer leave her standing on a window ledge and in danger of dying herself...
An amiable romp with six musical numbers (most of which are performed with a band in view), One Exciting Night is a comedy-adventure without enough laughs or thrills to justify its place in either genre. The last of three wartime vehicles for popular British singer Vera Lynn, known as 'the Nation's Sweetheart' for the achingly poignant 'We'll Meet Again' and patriotic 'The White Cliffs of Dover', it's light on action and focuses mainly on farce.
The plot is mildly engaging but much too convoluted, a sub-Wodehousian blend of light romance and criminal machinations which too often takes a back-seat to the songs. Lynn, here a wholesome, toothily attractive twenty-something, is charming and personable in a role which, perhaps unfortunately, requires her to be oblivious of the surrounding danger for much of the film. A far better version could have been made with her as an enterprising amateur sleuth in accord with the mystery, yet as it is she does no detective work whatsoever.
Even the last-reel jeopardy is half-hearted, lacking any concerted effort to excite or surprise, while the late introduction of one of those miraculous face-masks, so often seen in the Mission Impossible films, makes things all the more outrageous. The film ends, too, on a slightly anticlimactic note as the villains aren't arrested and - most distastefully - the male lead seems to settle on Vera because his true love is already married.
Nonetheless, if one doesn't ask too much of it, One Exciting Night makes for a warm, whimsical, occasionally even fleet-footed film, with at least a couple of enjoyable songs: 'It's Like Old Times' is a wistful, pop-ballad sing-along while 'You Can't Do Without Love', a call for household recycling in aid of the war effort, is a fun little ditty despite playing more like a public information announcement. Of course, it's all somewhat unlikely, and only in the 1940s could the plot of a feature film depend on somebody returning a lost wallet. If that happened to any of us today, it really would be one exciting night.
Vera, meanwhile, has been sacked after an impromptu performance at the United Nations Welfare Service. Discovering the wallet, she tries to return it - and impress its owner with her singing abilities - yet both get set upon by Hampton's men.
The package, she learns, is a Rembrandt painting which has been sent to Thorne for safe keeping. Hampton then hires Vera to perform at a cabaret. On the night of the show, he captures Thorne and tries to kill him with the help of a doppelgänger. Vera's efforts to rescue the imperilled producer leave her standing on a window ledge and in danger of dying herself...
An amiable romp with six musical numbers (most of which are performed with a band in view), One Exciting Night is a comedy-adventure without enough laughs or thrills to justify its place in either genre. The last of three wartime vehicles for popular British singer Vera Lynn, known as 'the Nation's Sweetheart' for the achingly poignant 'We'll Meet Again' and patriotic 'The White Cliffs of Dover', it's light on action and focuses mainly on farce.
The plot is mildly engaging but much too convoluted, a sub-Wodehousian blend of light romance and criminal machinations which too often takes a back-seat to the songs. Lynn, here a wholesome, toothily attractive twenty-something, is charming and personable in a role which, perhaps unfortunately, requires her to be oblivious of the surrounding danger for much of the film. A far better version could have been made with her as an enterprising amateur sleuth in accord with the mystery, yet as it is she does no detective work whatsoever.
Even the last-reel jeopardy is half-hearted, lacking any concerted effort to excite or surprise, while the late introduction of one of those miraculous face-masks, so often seen in the Mission Impossible films, makes things all the more outrageous. The film ends, too, on a slightly anticlimactic note as the villains aren't arrested and - most distastefully - the male lead seems to settle on Vera because his true love is already married.
Nonetheless, if one doesn't ask too much of it, One Exciting Night makes for a warm, whimsical, occasionally even fleet-footed film, with at least a couple of enjoyable songs: 'It's Like Old Times' is a wistful, pop-ballad sing-along while 'You Can't Do Without Love', a call for household recycling in aid of the war effort, is a fun little ditty despite playing more like a public information announcement. Of course, it's all somewhat unlikely, and only in the 1940s could the plot of a feature film depend on somebody returning a lost wallet. If that happened to any of us today, it really would be one exciting night.
helpful•00
- djfjflsflscv
- Dec 20, 2021
Details
- Runtime1 hour 29 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was You Can't Do Without Love (1944) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer