All Through the Night is a 1941 wartime comedy/thriller film from Warner Bros., directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Kaaren Verne, Jane Darwell, Frank McHugh, Judith Anderson, and William Demarest.
"Gloves" Donahue (Bogart) is a gambler who gets called by his mother (Darwell) when Mr. Miller, who makes his favorite cheesecake, is murdered. When his mother follows Leda Hamilton (Verne), a nightclub singer, because she was asking about Miller, Gloves reluctantly gets involved, only to find himself going up against a group of Nazis (Veidt, Lorre and Anderson) who are planning a major act of sabotage.
Most of the movie takes place over the course of a single night, hence the title.
A startlingly young Jackie Gleason plays one of Donahue's flunkies.
This film contains examples of:
- Almost Dead Guy: Joe Denning comes staggering out of the office, and collapses. He has just enough time to tell Gloves that the bad guys have taken Leda, before he dies.
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: As the police lead him away, Gloves protests Ebbing and the others are a bunch of fifth columnists and are the real murderers, to which a police officer responds, "And I'm Hitler".
- And the Adventure Continues: The film ends with Gloves' mom demanding he go looking for the milkman, because she has a feeling. "And when Ma Donohue has a feelin', she's got a feelin'..."
- Auction: Gloves and Barney go into the auction house to try and find Sunshine (who's been captured). Gloves sees a back room, and figures out the best way to get into the room is to bid on something.
- Berserk Button: Do not give Gloves any other kind of cheesecake except Miller's cheesecake.
- Big Applesauce: Though it was shot on sets, the entire movie takes place in New York City.
- The Chanteuse: Leda is the extremely sexy singer at a fancy nightclub.
- Clear My Name: Part of Gloves' motivation; when he accidentally drops one of his gloves at the scene where Joe Denning was killed, and because he was the last person to be seen with him, everyone assumes Gloves killed Denning.
- Contrived Coincidence: The two fifth columnists Gloves and Sunshine subdue and imitate in order to infiltrate Ebbing's meeting are, of course, the same ones called on to deliver a report at that meeting.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: When we first meet Ebbing, he looks like a decent, if somewhat flustered, auctioneer. Turns out, he's the Diabolical Mastermind.
- Dirty Coward: Peppi is a brutish murderer who is mostly loyal to Ebbing but when the latter decides to carry on a suicide attack on an American ship he decides to desert. Ebbing kills him for this.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Though Gloves is a "gambler" and "promoter", and Callahan is a nightclub owner, they act an awful lot like the gangsters of the 1930's movies Warner Brothers made. This is likely a way of getting past The Hays Code, since gangsters wouldn't be allowed as the good guys of a movie.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Gloves and Sunshine do this to Leda when they see her singing at Callahan's nightclub.Ma Donahue: (before she leaves the nightclub) Now son, be sure to find out what she knows about Miller.
Gloves: (still staring at Leda) Oh yes, I'll be sure to find out everything.
Sunshine: Including address, phone number, and open dates. - Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Pepi eats some of the candies from the jar on Miller's counter, without paying, plainly to intimidate him.
- Enemy Mine: Gloves and Callahan, rivals who don't like each other (especially after Callahan thinks Gloves killed Denning, his partner), team up to fight the Nazis.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Sunshine calls the Nazis a bunch of fifth columnists. Gloves realizes that's what Denning was trying to signal to him before he died.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: While Gloves isn't bad, exactly, he dotes on his mother, to the point he always comes when she calls, to the exasperation of his gang.Starchie: This is very exasperating. We got a man on first, man on second, man on third, two out, bottom of the ninth, and what happens? We have to go. Why?Sunshine: Yeah, why?Gloves: I can't help it. My mother called; she said it was urgent.Gloves, Starchie and Sunshine: And when she says it's urgent, it's urgent.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Again, Gloves isn't exactly evil, but he's not really a saint either. However, that doesn't make him any more receptive to when Ebbing tries to recruit him:Ebbing: It's a great pity, Mr. Donahue, that you and I should oppose each other. We have so much in common.Gloves: Yeah? How's that?Ebbing: You are a man of action. You take what you want, and so do we. You have no respect for democracy - neither do we. It's clear we should be allies.Gloves: It's clear you're screwy. I've been a registered Democrat ever since I could vote. I may not be Model Citizen Number One, but I pay my taxes, wait for traffic lights, and buy 24 tickets to the Policeman's Ball. Brother, don't get me mixed up in no league that rubs out innocent bakers and...
- False Reassurance: After Sunshine tells Gloves about a friend of his who had his skull cracked in the area they're in:Barney: That friend of yours; how is he?Sunshine: Fine! He's dead!
- The Glasses Come Off: Played for Laughs; When Sunshine and the Waiter (played by Phil Silvers) nearly come to blows, the Waiter pulls his glasses off in order to fight, but can't see a thing and says, "Where is everybody?"
- Gut Feeling: Gloves' mother follows Leda to the nightclub because she's got a feeling Leda knows something. And when she's got a feeling, she's got a feeling.
- Heel–Face Turn: Madame, after Ebbing gives her a slap, tells Gloves where he's gone.
- Holding the Floor: After Gloves (or, rather, the person he's imitating) is called on to give a report at Ebbing's meeting (see Contrived Coincidence above), he uses the documents he found on the man he's imitating, along with a lot of double-talk, to stall for time until his gang (as well as Marty Callahan's gang) arrive to break up the meeting.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: When Mrs. Donahue assures Mrs. Miller her son can find Mr. Miller after he's gone missing, Gloves responds, "I'm a promoter, Ma, not J. Edgar Hoover."
- Married to the Job: Barney, no matter how much he tries to avoid it:Barney: (to Annabelle, as he's leaving) Please understand, it's a national emergency! It can't wait!
Annabelle: Well, neither can I! - Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Miller's murder—>a plot by fifth columnists to blow up a battleship.
- Narrative Profanity Filter: Lampshaded when Barney comes back with meeting with Callahan:Gloves: Any message?
Barney: Should I leave out the curse words?
Gloves: (chuckling) Yeah.
Barney: No message. - One Crazy Night: Gloves goes to a nightclub to fetch his mother, and winds up in an all-night odyssey that involves shootouts, kidnappings, a spy ring, and finally a kamikaze motorboat loaded up to sink a U.S. battleship. Appropriate for a film called All Through the Night.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Gloves; his first name is Alfred, but when Leda reveals she knows that, he warns her not to spread it around. Even his mother calls him Gloves or "son."
- Pet the Dog: Literally; as he prepares to interrogate Leda, Ebbing takes his pet dachshund into the room with him, talks to him gently, and then throws a ball for him to play with.
- Subverted later, however, when Ebbing takes the dachshund with him on his Suicide Attack. Ebbing doesn't make it, but it's implied the dog survives.
- Pun:Leda: I also feel it's about time someone knocked the Axis back on its heels.Gloves: Excuse me, baby. What she means is, it's about time somebody knocked those heels back on their axis!
- Running Gag: Barney continually complaining throughout the evening about how he's being prevented from going back and having sex with his wife.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Pepi is like this when Ebbing things they should do the bombing themselves (after Gloves, Callahan and their gangs have overrun the meeting). Unfortunately for Pepi, Ebbing has other ideas...
- Shout-Out: When Sunshine gets an unexpected call, he grouses, "For whom does the bell toll now?"
- So Much for Stealth: Gloves and Sunshine are in Ebbing's front business, a toy factory, when Sunshine steps on a roller skate, slips, and crashes loudly into a number of boxes.Sunshine: Guess I must've slipped.Gloves: You must've slipped.
- This allows Ebbing's men to capture Sunshine minutes later.
- Tap on the Head: Leda does this to Gloves with her handbag (though it's only to keep Pepi from killing him).
- There Was a Door: Sunshine raises an axe high above his head, about to chop down the door to the Nazi office. Gloves stops him, tries the doorknob, and opens the unlocked door.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Or fifth columnists, in this case.
- Title Drop: Leda sings a song called "All Through the Night".
- Unexpected Virgin: Barney. Every attempt to get with his wife is thwarted.Barney: But I haven't got any experience!
- Waxing Lyrical: When Gloves meets Leda at the club she works at, he says, "I don't know exactly how to begin this beguine."
- We Interrupt This Program: "We interrupt our regular program" on the radio in order to broadcast a bulletin about Gloves being wanted for murder.
- Would Hit a Girl: Gloves does this to Leda to get her to escape with them.
