Home Before Dark (1958)
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Wearing a curiously (and perhaps deliberately) unattractive blonde wig, Jean Simmons stars in the tense psychological drama Home Before Dark. Having just recovered from a nervous breakdown, Charlotte Bronn (Simmons) returns from a mental institution to the home she shares with her academician husband Arnold (Dan O'Herlihy). Though he tries his best to help Charlotte re-adapt, his efforts are undermined by the insensitive meddling of her stepmother Inez (Mabel Albertson) and stepsister Joan (Rhonda Fleming) who may or may not have been carrying on a romance with Arnold in Charlotte's absence. The untenable situation at home leads Charlotte into a romance with college professor Jake Diamond (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), who as an ongoing target of anti-semitism has plenty of his own emotional baggage to deal with. What is remarkable about Home Before Dark is that it is a film without a villain: even the most unpleasant characters are drawn as three-dimensional human beings, who behave badly because they really don't know any better. The film was adapted by Robert and Eileen Bassing from Eileen's same-named novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Complete Cast:
- Jean Simmons - Charlotte Bronn
- Rhonda Fleming - Joan Carlisle
- Mabel Albertson - Inez Winthrop
- Joan Weldon - Frances Barrett
- Kathryn Card - Mattie
- Johnstone White - Malcolm Southey
- Dan O'Herlihy - Arnold Bronn
- Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. - Jake Diamond
- Stephen Dunne - Hamilton Gregory
- Joanna Barnes - Cathy Bergner
- Marjorie Bennett - Hazel Evans
- Eleanor Audley - Mrs. Hathaway
- Director(s):
- Mervyn LeRoy
- Writer(s):
- Robert Bassing, Eileen Bassing
- Producer(s):
- Mervyn LeRoy
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