In Everything Happens at Night (1939) Geoffrey (Ray Milland) and Ken (Robert Cummings) star as rival reporters hot on the trail of Dr. Hugo Norden (Maurice Moscovich). Norden, a Nobel Prize winner, was supposedly murdered by the Gestapo, but is rumored to be in hiding and writing anonymous dispatches advocating world peace. When Geoffrey and Ken track Dr. Norden to a small village in the Swiss Alps, they soon find themselves competing over the affections of beautiful Louise (Sonja Henie), who has a deeper connection to the missing Nobel laureate than the reporters realize. When Geoffrey and Ken get so distracted by romance that they begin to neglect their assignments, it almost leads to disaster as the Gestapo sets out to silence Dr. Norden once and for all.

Ray Milland was borrowed from Paramount to co-star in this 20th Century Fox vehicle for their reigning ice queen Sonja Henie. Everything Happens at Night was the sixth Hollywood film for the Norwegian born three-time Olympic gold medalist Henie who had carved out her specialty niche in skating-themed films for Fox. Henie is given more of a chance to demonstrate her dramatic acting chops throughout the film than usual, and her exuberant solo skating number to Johann Strauss's "Blue Danube" features Henie at her best. "...whether she is gliding backwards or forwards, or skating rings around Greek columns..." said Time magazine in its review of the film, "Sonja Henie on blades is still the best part of one of her pictures."

Director: Irving Cummings
Screenplay: Art Arthur, Robert Harari (original screenplay); F. Scott Fitzgerald (uncredited)
Cinematography: Edward Cronjager; Lucien N. Andriot (uncredited)
Art Direction: Richard Day, Albert Hogsett
Music: David Buttolph, Cyril J. Mockridge (uncredited)
Film Editing: Walter Thompson
Cast: Sonja Henie (Louise), Ray Milland (Geoffrey Thompson), Robert Cummings (Ken Morgan), Maurice Moscovich (Dr. Hugo Norden), Leonid Kinskey (Groder), Alan Dinehart (Fred Sherwood), Fritz Feld (Gendarme), Jody Gilbert (Hilda), Victor Varconi (Cavas), William Edmunds (Hotel Clerk).
BW-78m.

by Andrea Passafiume