Many of us enjoy comedies, while others are partial to a good crime story. Then some adore a decently-made gangster picture, and those of us who love the experience of a strongly-constructed thriller. Somehow, there is a film that combines all four of these genres, and even adds in a bit of social satire and melodramatic romance just for good measure. All Through the Night, which was written by Leonard Spigelgass and Edwin Gilbert, and brought to life by journeyman director Vincent Sherman, is one of the great underseen gems of the 1940s, one of the several brilliant works that have been oddly hidden under layers of obscurity, despite being one of the most experimental and genuinely exciting films to come out of the studio era. It’s a film that may not know exactly what it wanted to be but has the audacity and skillfulness required to leap into the unknown, creating a work that may be entirely unconventional but proves to be far ahead of its time, likely being an influence on generations of filmmakers that realized it is perfectly plausible to have a project that doesn’t fit into any preconceived category, and instead moves fluidly between several, creating a deeply complex sense of awe and wonder, and entertaining the viewer beyond measure. All Through the Night is one of the most surprisingly intriguing films of its era, both for the subject matter (which goes in many unexpected directions, making it quite unpredictable), and how it executes some of its bolder ideas, which manifest in a story that is frequently aiming to push boundaries, even those that seem to be relatively unorthodox already, leading to an indescribably entertaining experience.

It’s not clear whether anyone involved in the creation of All Through the Night had any intention of having this be as brilliant as it was, especially since the most notable piece of trivia is that the presence of comedy legends Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason was only due to them being contract players for the studio, with the executives forcing them to be written into the script to give them something to do (and if there were two actors who we’d expect to be given roles just to keep them occupied, why not these two icons?). However, there’s a masterful sense of complexity to this film that is difficult to fully describe. It’s not one of their prestige gangster dramas, nor is it a comedy aiming to entertain a wide audience. Instead, it’s a very strange, off-kilter satire that relentlessly blends every popular genre within reach, likely in the hopes of seeing how audiences would react to something so different from what they’d normally have encountered. On the surface, All Through the Night seems like a relatively conventional potboiler, an early forerunner of film noir, but told from a slightly more upbeat perspective – but the rapid-fire, witty dialogue slowly starts to become more scarce, and is replaced with a sense of genuine suspense, interspersed with some mesmerizing sequences in which Sherman shows that he is not only just a director with a good sense of how to bring a story to life but also execute some of the more ambitious ideas in a way that feels exciting and dynamic. Had it not been for the presence of certain actors, we’d have easily expected All Through the Night to be a more modern film, a pastiche designed to playfully lampoon a genre that had only just entered its maturity, which is one of the many compelling aspects of this delightfully odd film.

Then of course, we get to the truly bewildering side of the story, which is that All Through the Night is one of the few comedies that uses the rise of Nazism as its foundation. The revelation that the villains in this film – which is coincidentally set in the upper-class neighbourhoods of New York City, are Nazi insurgents that operate an underground system in the United States, is one of the most shocking but ambitious narrative decisions of the era. Much like brilliant works like The Great Dictator and To Be or Not to Be, this film is fearless in how it openly goes against the principles of fascism by outright ridiculing its followers. This may not be a film that contains a plethora of outrageous jokes that lampoons the Nazi Party, but it does have a wicked sense of humour that allows it to be very forthright in showcasing its umbrage toward the system. It even manages to be unexpectedly insightful about the grotesque crimes, with a sub-plot involving one of the secondary characters’ relatives dying in a concentration camp giving the film a sense of gravity that more flippant comedies may not have expected. Naturally, we could not expect the screenwriters to have put together the most defining indictment on the rise of Adolf Hitler and the herd mentality of his followers, especially since this film was produced while they were still in power, and gradually continuing the spread of their despicable ideology – the best satires are often those that look at current affairs since they tend to be far more caustic, and even bring a sense of danger to the proceedings, since it felt like it was produced as an act of rebellion against the villains depicted. It takes a lot of intelligent writing and outright courage to produce something that seems to be focusing on events in real-time, and even more impressive when we consider how All Through the Night was so forward-thinking, several of its themes remain remarkably resonant, several decades since the end of the regime it was openly deriding.

1942 was a banner year for Humphrey Bogart – he was now an established star and someone whom audiences consistently reacted well to, meaning that he could take on leading roles without executives worrying that his unique style of acting, or vaguely menacing persona, would be a challenge for viewers when it comes to characters who resonate with as wide an audience as possible. While Casablanca is understandably amongst his most iconic works, it’s surprisingly All Through the Night that contains one of his best performances. Much like his friends and frequent colleagues Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney (who were just as definitive of the Warner Brothers as he was), Bogart had a terrific sense of humour that was not always well-utilized, since he was mostly cast in dramatic roles. This film doesn’t give him too much to do in terms of traditional humour, but his straight-man act is quite funny in the context of the absurd events that surround him. His sardonic sense of humour and ability to be self-aware while still maintaining a very distinct persona is the reason his performance here is one of his best. He is surrounded by a wide range of recognizable talents, many of whom were drawn from the studio’s repertory cast of regular players – Conrad Veidt (whose own career is fascinating when we consider how he left his native Germany and demanded to play villainous characters to prevent any positive depiction of the Nazi Party), Peter Lorre, Jane Darwell and Judith Anderson are all fantastic in smaller roles, and manage to lean into the comedic sides of the story without making its satirical elements too obvious. It’s very much an ensemble-based film, and it moves swiftly between characters, giving every character the chance to stand out, but also never letting the camera lose focus on Bogart for too long, since he is understandably the main attraction here.

It’s baffling to realize that one of the most scathing satires on this dark moment in human history is contained in a relatively low-budget gangster comedy, but yet there’s nothing quite as surprising as the little details you encounter when exploring the Golden Age of Hollywood. Even during the era of the Hays Code, we find several examples of films that go against the grain, attempting to find new ways to tell stories that adhered to the (often incomprehensibly) strict conventions of the censors, while still being honest enough about reality to create important discussions. There is an argument to be made that All Through the Night could have been made by simply following any one of the genres that occur at its heart – but then it would not have been nearly successful, since a lot of the charm relies on the many unexpected directions in which the story goes. It’s a film that has many extraordinarily bold ideas embedded deep within it, and we slowly and casually watch it unfold in front of us, with Sherman delivering a fascinating and thrilling account of these unexpected heroes going on a voyage of self-discovery while evading the dangers of the Nazis who are relentlessly pursuing them. Odd disquieting, and utterly exhilarating, there’s very little doubt that All Through the Night is a true hidden gem of a film, and it’s intriguing to consider how deeply this film is willing to go for the sake of entertaining the viewer, while still being a deeply captivating work of art all on its own.