Concieved with the prurient working titles Do Not Disturb and Army Bride, this extraordinary quickie shot in six days (!) was the first picture B-director William "One Shot" Beaudine made for Monogram Studios. But for all its haste of production, the light comedy doesn't suffer: Newlyweds Horace (John Beal) and Millie (Wanda McKay) have only 24 hours to enjoy a Times Square honeymoon before hubby ships out to the Army in the morning. The blushing duo suffers little obstacles at first (nosy bellhops, a shy bride) but just when it seems they might actually enjoy a glass of champagne, gangsters invade their bridal suite searching for lost cash. Then Horace mistakes a corpse in their bed for Millie, and all hell breaks loose on a rip-roaring overnight romp through the New York underground that presages other bad-time-in-the-Big-Apple pictures like The Out Of Towners (1970) and After Hours (1985). Hugely popular with critics of the time, with raves from Variety and Hollywood Reporter, One Thrilling Night was a real feather in the cap for Monogram, whose reputation for quick, cheap, dirty and thrilling was well served by Beaudine's breakneck auteurship.

By Violet LeVoit