Star in the Night

Star in the Night (1945)

Nick, a motel owner who has lost faith in more than just the humanity of mankind, is visited by a kindly stranger on Christmas Eve. The motel's guests are only concerned for themselves until a poor man and his wife drive up to the motel, unable to go any further. Out of rooms, Nick's wife prepares a place for them in a shed under a neon star Nick had just finished hanging. Their plight brings out the generosity in everyone, including Nick, who remembers another family almost two thousand years earlier that also found a makeshift room at an inn under another kind of star.

Date of release
1945-10-13
TMDB
7.5 / 10 (24)
Runtime
22m
Genres
Drama, Family, Western
Director
Don Siegel

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 1. Including: Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Two-reel

Star in the Night is a 1945 American short drama film directed by Don Siegel and starring J. Carrol Naish, Donald Woods and Rosina Galli. The film was Siegel's directorial debut, and won an Oscar in 1946 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). The film is a modern-day retelling of the Nativity story, set on Christmas Eve at a desert motel in the Southwestern United States.

Background

The short film Star in the Night deals with a modern retelling of the Nativity story and also adds some elements from A Christmas Carol to it. Saul Elkins wrote the screenplay; the story was by Robert Finch. Produced with a rather small budget and character actors, it was the directorial debut of Don Siegel, who later directed thriller feature films like Dirty Harry. Previously Siegel had worked as a Warner Bros.

In 1946, Star in the Night won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel) at the 18th Academy Awards. The Academy Award for Best Short Documentary Film was won by Hitler Lives, also directed by Don Siegel. After his success with both shorts he went on to make feature films.

On December 16, 1948, the radio program Hallmark Playhouse featured a 30-minute adaptation re-titled “The Desert Shall Rejoice,” starring film actor John Hodiak as Nick. The radio version used most of the same basic story elements (e.g., the Nativity story; how Rosa decided to marry Nick) but with substantially revised dialogue and one significant new story element.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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