Night Into Morning is a 1951 American drama film directed by Fletcher Markle and starring Ray Milland, John Hodiak and Nancy Davis.
Everything is going very well for college professor Phillip Ainley, who has a loving wife and son and an offer to teach at Yale. But his world turns upside-down when Katherine Mead, his secretary, rushes to tell him that there's been a deadly explosion at the professor's home.
His wife and child are killed. Ainley, devastated, becomes morose and turns to drink, causing Mead, a war widow, and best friend Tom Lawry, her betrothed, to consider these telltale signs that the professor could be suicidal.
A popular athlete on campus has failed an exam and might not graduate, so his girlfriend Dottie appeals to the professor to give him a second chance. A drunken Ainley tells her remaining unmarried might spare them both future heartbreak. He then crashes a car, terrifying the girl and resulting in his arrest.
Character witnesses convince the judge to place Ainley on probation. The professor permits the athlete to take a second exam, then gives him a passing grade. Ainley gets his affairs in order and goes to a hotel, where he plans to take his life. Only a last-minute intervention by Mead saves him, the widow reminding Ainley that she found a new love and new life, just as her first true love would have wanted.
According to MGM records, the movie earned $556,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $263,000 in other markets, resulting in a loss to the studio of $312,000.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: "One of the darkest experiences that the human spirit can be forced to endureâÂÂthat is, the death of a loved one and the adjustment subsequent theretoâÂÂis considered with decent compassion and simple dramatic clarity in Night Into Morning, a Metro picture which opened at Loew's State on Saturday."