Home Before Dark

Home Before Dark is a 1958 American Warner Brothers dark drama film, directed and produced by Mervyn LeRoy, and starring Jean Simmons, Dan O'Herlihy, Rhonda Fleming, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. The screenplay was written by Eileen and Robert Bassing, based on the novel by Eileen Bassing. The title song was written by Sammy Cahn with music by Jimmy McHugh. The film, and Simmons' performance in particular, attracted positive critical comment. Pauline Kael of the New Yorker wrote, "Jean Simmons gives a reserved, beautifully modulated performance," and film critic Philip French believed it contained "perhaps her finest performance." Plot Charlotte Bronn (Jean Simmons) leaves a Massachusetts state mental hospital to resume life with her professor husband, Arnold Bronn (Dan O'Herlihy) after a year inside. Dr. Collins worries that Charlotte will be among the many patients who relapse when they return to the same situations that caused their problems. Charlotte's stepmother, Inez (Mabel Albertson) and stepsister, Joan (Rhonda Fleming) live with them in the house Charlotte owns. Charlotte knows she attacked Joan in a fit of jealousy but has no memory of it. She knows because she was told. There is also a stranger in the house, a boarder, Dr. Jake Diamond (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.), on temporary assignment at the college where Arnold teaches. He offered the room to be hospitable—and to please the soon-to-retire department head. Arnold wants his job. Mattie, the irascible cook, completes the household. Arnold sees no reason to change things.