The Longest Night
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Errol Taggart
Robert Young
Florence Rice
Ted Healy
Julie Haydon
Catharine Doucet
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Eve Sutton helps her boyfriend, Carl Briggs, rob the department store for which they work. The next day, her sister Joan realizes that one of the missing pieces, a watch, is similar to one which Carl gave Eve. She then tells Carl's mother about it because Mrs. Briggs is her boss. In addition to the robbery, employees are worried when they hear that the store is being sold by the old owner's son, Charles Phelps, whom Joan accidentally meets in the cane department, shortly after the store closes. A few minutes later, going to use an abandoned elevator, Joan and Charley find the strangled body of Mrs. Briggs. During the course of the murder investigation, a customer, Mrs. Wilson G. Wilson, says that she had seen a suspicious man running out of the store, wearing spats. Worried about her sister, whom she suspects is involved in Mrs. Briggs' murder, Joan resists the friendly overtures of Charley. As Carl is being questioned, he says that he knows who killed his mother, but just as he is about to reveal "the man's" name, he is killed by a bullet shot from above. Charley then reveals that his father, who loved the store, wanted to keep an eye on everything and had numerous "whispering windows" throughout the store, from which he could see and hear everything. Eve reveals to Joan most of the story about the robberies, but she refuses to identify the murderer because she fears for her own life. Eve and Mr. Grover, another employee, disappear, then the watch and a tack from the furniture department come to them in the pneumatic tubes and Joan realizes that they are messages from Eve, who is sending them from the furniture department. She then tells Charley, but no one else. Soon the lights go out in the store, and in the chaos, Joan and Grover's voices are heard over the intercom, both screaming for help. Everyone goes to the sixth floor, but they can't find any bodies until Mrs. Wilson's son Albert finds Eve in a box on the seventh floor. Soon more police arrive and turn on the master switches to the lights, but employee Hardy grabs the Captain's gun while Joan and Charley sneak away. When they find Eve, she is alive and reveals that Grover is the killer and head of the gang, which includes Hardy and the other men dressed as police on the sixth floor. Joan overhears what is happening downstairs and hides, pursued by other members of the gang. She hides in an office and starts a small fire to activate the sprinklers and summon the fire department while she sneaks away in a private elevator. As Grover and Watson tie up some of the people and take Charley and the real police hostage, Joan lets the tied up cleaning ladies out and the police and fire departments come. The cleaning ladies capture the gang using mops and buckets and Charley apprehends Grover, holding him until the police arrive to stop the melee. Charley announces that he will not sell the store and proposes to Joan.
Director
Errol Taggart
Cast
Robert Young
Florence Rice
Ted Healy
Julie Haydon
Catharine Doucet
Janet Beecher
Leslie Fenton
Sidney Toler
Paul Stanton
Etienne Girardot
Tommy Bupp
Samuel S. Hinds
Minor Watson
Kitty Mchugh
Olin Howland
Gertrude Sutton
John Hyams
Ed Cook
Frank Bruno
Paul Sutton
Victor Adams
Richard Powell
Baldwin Cook
Ben Taggart
Henry Sylvester
Sherry Hall
Mathilde Comont
Crew
Robert Andrews
James Burbridge
Chet Forrest
Cedric Gibbons
Lucien Hubbard
Eddie Imazu
Robert J. Kern
Samuel Marx
Harry Sharrock
Douglas Shearer
Edward Ward
Lester White
Edwin B. Willis
Bob Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Thought to be the shortest feature ever produced by MGM (the title notwithstanding!).
Notes
A Hollywood Reporter production chart includes Bert Roach in the cast, but his participation in the completed film has not been verified. According to modern sources, this film was the shortest feature ever made at M-G-M.
