Stranger on the Prowl

Imbarco a mezzanotte
US theatrical release poster
Directed byJoseph Losey
Screenplay byBen Barzman
Based on
"La bouteille du lait"
by Noël Calef
Produced by
    • Noël Calef
    • Andrea Forzano
    • Albert Salvatore
Starring
CinematographyHenri Alekan
Edited byThelma Connell
Music byGiulio Cesare Sonzogno
Production
companies
Riviera Films
Tirrenia Film
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release dates
  • March 12, 1952 (1952-03-12) (Italy)
  • November 9, 1953 (1953-11-09) (US)
Running time
90 minutes
CountriesItaly
United States
LanguageEnglish

Stranger on the Prowl (Italian: Imbarco a mezzanotte, lit. 'Boarding at midnight') is a 1952 film noir directed by Joseph Losey, written by Ben Barzman, and starring Paul Muni, Joan Lorring, and Vittorio Manuta.[1][2]

A co-production between Italy and the United States, the picture was the first to be made abroad by any blacklisted Hollywood director.[3] Due to the blacklist, both Losey and Barzman were uncredited.[4][5][6]

Plot

A disillusioned vagrant kills a shop owner, and is joined by a rebellious youngster in his flight from apprehension.[7]

Cast

Production

The film was Joseph Losey's first film after leaving the United States due to the Hollywood blacklist the year prior, and the first film overall by a blacklisted American filmmaker produced overseas.[8] As the film was being distributed by American studio United Artists, both Losey and Ben Barzman were fronted by Italian filmmaker Andrea Forzano.[6][9] Losey replaced the original director, Bernard Vorhaus, also a blacklistee.[6]

The film was based on an unpublished short story by Bulgarian-French author Noël Calef, whose writings were later adapted into the films Elevator to the Gallows and Tiger Bay.[9] Calef also produced the film, his only such credit.

Paul Muni traveled to Italy to star in the film partly as an act of solidarity and support for blacklisted friends living there in exile.[6] This was his first film role in over eight years, following 1946's Angel on My Shoulder.

Release

The film premiered in Italy on March 12, 1952.

Reception

Retrospective appraisal

“Stranger on the Prowl, made at the end of the neorealist revolution in Italian cinema, has the grainy texture and the naturalistic mood of the films by De Sica or Rosellini. Since it tells the story of a man and a boy, it contains echoes of De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief (1948). - Film critic Foster Hirsch in Joseph Losey (1980)[10]

Film historian Foster Hirsch considers the Stranger on the Prowl deserving of “more attention than it has received.”[11]

The film is clearly influenced by Italian neorealism and consequently is “markedly different” in its mise-en-scene from Losey’s previous Hollywood, and his subsequent British produced films, notably lacking in their claustrophobic “closed qualities.”[12] Hirsch writes:

The film is set in the cavernous, bombed-out [word missing] of a severely depleted post-war Italian slum…as in the major neo-realist films, Losey frames his action with a sense of the ongoing flow of life. The screen is almost always filled with background movement…Losey’s film “redeems” physical reality with its “open compositions.”[13]

Hirsch reserves special mention for American film star Paul Muni, who brings pathos and genuine dignity to the impoverished outcast and fugitive he portrays.[14]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 157-158: Filmography
  2. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 234: Filmography
  3. ↑ Palmer and Riley, 1993 p. 9: In 1952, Losey “directed in Italy… the first film to be made abroad by a blacklisted artist…” And: See her for repercussions of HUAC investigations and blacklists on Hollywood filmmakers.
  4. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 60: “Because of the Hollywood blacklist, Losey wrote and directed the film under the name of Andrea Forzano.”
  5. ↑ Callahan, 2003: See here for repercussions from blacklisting. “he never shot another film in the USA.”
  6. 1 2 3 4 Caute, David (1994). Joseph Losey: A Revenge on Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195064100.
  7. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 58: Plot sketch.
  8. ↑ "Stranger on the Prowl". Harvard Film Archive. 2008-08-04. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  9. 1 2 "IMBARCO A MEZZANOTTE". Festival Il Cinema Ritrovato | Bologna, June 20-28. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  10. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 58
  11. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 60: “...the film is rarely shown…”
  12. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 59-60
  13. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 59: Ellipsis for brevity, clarity: meaning unaltered.
  14. ↑ Hirsch, 1980 p. 60

Sources

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