The Wagons Roll at Night (1941) **1/2

 Release Date: April 26, 1941

Running Time: 84 minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Eddie Albert, Sylvia Sidney, Joan Leslie, Sig Roman

Directed by: Ray Enright

Eddie Albert stars as Matt, a local grocery clerk turned hero, then lion tamer in The Wagons Roll at Night. Pair that with an unscrupulous circus manager played by Humphrey Bogart, a drunken lion tamer incapable of keeping an aggressive lion named Caesar from escaping his cage and terrorizing a mother and infant, and a unconvincing love plot marred by murderous jealousy and you can see why this film doesn’t incite much excitement. 

The story is pretty straight forward. Nick Coster (Humphrey Bogart) owns and manages a circus. Through some carelessness Caesar the lion escapes and manages to enter a grocery store. The clerk on duty, Matt, manages to subdue the beast long enough for him to be recaptured. He is heralded as a hero for this, having also saved the lives of a woman and her infant. The resulting publicity leads Nick to hiring Matt as a new back-up lion tamer banking on the new found fame to draw in audiences. Also, Nick needs someone in the position because the current lion tamer, Hoffman, is an alcoholic and has become unreliable. Hoffman (Sig Roman) takes this personally and sets out to sabotage the new upstart. However Matt does well in the position and Nick fires Hoffman, while keeping Hoffman’s lions.

Hoffman refuses to accept Matt’s apology for taking his job and starts a fight that leaves Hoffman injured by Caesar. Fearing being accused of intentionally injuring Hoffman Matt is taken into hiding from the police by Nick’s girlfriend Flo Lorraine(Sylvia Sidney), to Nick’s family home even though Nick strongly objects to his family intermingling with the circus performers. There Matt meets Nick’s sister Mary and the two fall in love much to Nick’s strong objections. This leads to some clashing between the two men that ultimately turns deadly.

Eddie Albert was a relative newcomer when he starred in this film having hit the scene just three years prior. Even this early in his career he had charisma on screen that would help him become a bona fide star early into the 1940’s. Even so he is a little out of his comfort zone coming across as a little too naive. He would be completely overshadowed by Bogart and Sylvia Sidney were the two not badly miscast in roles outside their wheelhouse. At this point in his career Bogart was still mostly a secondary character actor best at playing gangsters and hoodlums. Here he is supposed to be a businessman running a somewhat successful circus and it never quite clicks. Likewise Sylvia comes across at times like she is in over her head and is never convincing as Nick’s love interest. 

There are plenty of good things to be said about this Stunt work with the lions is mostly convincing for its time, especially in the earlier scenes. The finale is harrowing and well staged if a little hammed up by Bogart’s performance. Eddie Albert is, as always, watchable even as he is a little green around the ears. 

This is an interesting period in Bogart’s career, just a year away from his big breakout in Casablanca. He was already trying to get away from the cliched mobsters he had made a career out of playing in the 30’s so taking a role like this makes sense for him. However he struggles with making it a truly memorable performance that could have elevated him and this film above merely passable entertainment. He would soon find his footing and become the star he is now known for but he wasn’t quite there yet. In the end, The Wagon’s Roll at Night is an average film, forgettable to all but the die hard Bogart or Eddie Albert fans.