Clash by Night

Mae Doyle returns to her hometown of Monterey, California after 10 years on the East Coast. Joe, her fisherman brother, is unhappy to see her but accepts her back into the family home. His girlfriend Peggy welcomes Mae. When Joe asks Mae about the rich man whom she had been seeing, she explains that he was a married politician. He died and left her some money, but his wife and relatives sued her and won.

Mae begins to date Jerry D'Amato, a good-natured, unsophisticated fisherman with his own boat. She despises Jerry's friend Earl Pfeiffer, a bitter, dissatisfied film projectionist. Mae's politician lover had made her feel confident in herself, but in stark contrast, Earl has a low opinion of women and makes no attempt to hide it. His wife is a vaudeville performer who is frequently away on tour, and Earl suspects that she is unfaithful.

Despite Mae's opinion of Earl, he senses a kindred and restless spirit between them. Jerry is oblivious to the attraction and asks Mae to marry him, although she warns him that she is not good for him. Mae accepts, although she does not love or respect him. She seeks security and hopes that she can change.

A year after having a baby girl with Jerry, Mae becomes bored and restless. Earl, now divorced, makes an advance on Mae. She resists at first but then begins an affair with him. Jerry's uncle Vince, who bears a grudge against Mae, knows of the affair and informs his disbelieving nephew. When Jerry confronts the couple, Mae admits that she wants to leave Jerry to be with Earl.

After a few drinks and some prodding by Vince, Jerry finds and starts strangling Earl until Mae arrives and stops the fight. Jerry leaves, horrified that he came close to killing his friend. When Mae returns home to take her baby away, she finds the crib empty. Earl tries to coax Mae to leave with him anyway, without the baby, but Mae refuses. After trading bitter recriminations, she ends the relationship. Later, Mae repents and convinces Jerry to reconcile.

• Barbara Stanwyck as Mae Doyle D'Amato
• Paul Douglas as Jerry D'Amato
• Robert Ryan as Earl Pfeiffer
• Marilyn Monroe as Peggy
• Keith Andes as Joe Doyle
• Silvio Minciotti as Papa D'Amato
• J. Carrol Naish as Uncle Vince
• Diane and Deborah Stewart as Gloria D'Amato

Clifford Odets' play Clash by Night was originally performed in 1941 as a neorealist Broadway play with Tallulah Bankhead in the lead female role.^[3] Robert Ryan, who eventually starred in the film version, was a member of the Broadway cast along with Bankhead at the start of his career.^[4]

Joan Crawford was originally scheduled to play the female lead, and her contract was to award her five percent of the film's gross, an unprecedented figure.^[5] However, Crawford was forced to withdraw because of her commitments to This Woman Is Dangerous and Sudden Fear.^[6] Barbara Stanwyck was announced in August 1951.^[7] Marilyn Monroe was cast in the role of Peggy later that month,^[8] and Stanwyck and the other stars of the film were so impressed with her work that they lobbied to grant her star billing. The film is Monroe's first to feature her name before the title.^[9]

Ryan was cast in December 1950 after renewing a contract with RKO Radio Pictures, but in an unspecified role.^[10] Burt Lancaster was rumored to be Crawford's costar,^[11] and the producers also sought Richard Carlson,^[12] Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift^[6] and Charlton Heston.^[13] The search for the male lead caused a delay in production.^[6]

Fritz Lang was announced as the director in August 1951.^[13] Lang changed the locale from Staten Island to a fishing town in California but preserved the oppressive seacoast atmosphere.^[3] However, to satisfy the demands of the Production Code, the tragic ending of the play was changed. Production began on October 8, 1951 with location filming in Monterey, California.^[14]

The title of the film, as well as that of the play, is derived from Matthew Arnold's 1851 poem "Dover Beach".^[15]

During production, the famous nude calendar photos of Monroe surfaced and reporters hounded her, creating considerable distraction for the filmmakers.^[16]

Odets, a former communist, was named by Elia Kazan before the House Un-American Activities Committee shortly before the film's release. RKO studio owner Howard Hughes, a strident anticommunist who had recently stripped communist writer Paul Jarrico of credit for The Las Vegas Story and fired 200 employees in an effort to rid the company of communist influence, was faced with a dilemma. However, a contract with Odets signed two years earlier guaranteed him screen credit, and Hughes feared that a legal battle would force a long delay in the film's release, so Odets' name remained as the credited writer.^[1]

Clash by Night premiered in multiple international cities, including New York, Paris and London, on May 28, 1952.^[1]

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic A. H. Weiler wrote: "Mr. Odets' play never is the sum of some of its parts. It lacks conviction and distinction despite its hard-working principals. ... Miss Stanwyck is professionally realistic in the role. Paul Douglas is a physically convincing portrait of the simple, muscular and trusting Jerry. But it is difficult to take his extreme idealistic devotion."^[17]

Critic Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "'Clash by Night' possesses the slashing power of a real drama in the raw. It is contrived excellently and played with high efficiency by its cast nine-tenths of the way."^[18]

Variety called the film "a rather aimless drama of lust and passion".^[19]