Clash by Night
RKO Films 1952

Clash By Night

    This RKO film was produced in Monterey in 1951 by Harriet Parsons, the daughter of Hearst columnist Louella O. Parsons. Harriet was also the first female producer in Hollywood. In this film, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, Paul Douglas, a rising starlet by the name of Marilyn Monroe appears in her first co-starring role as a fish cutter in a cannery in an anonymous coastal fishing town: Monterey.
    This classic Monterey/Cannery Row film’s opening scenes document the fleet sailing out to sea from the harbor toward darkness, setting nets and hauling in tons of sardines (which Harriet says, in an unpublished autobiography, that it was almost impossible to find enough fish for the film). Scenes include Fisherman’s Wharf where Angelo’s restaurant was used in Barbara Stanwyck’s prodigal return home.
    Many scenes are shot at and in the carriage houses of the old Tevis-Murray Estate on Cannery Row. These shingled structures remain at 725 and 728 Cannery Row, across from the South wing of the Monterey Plaza Hotel & Spa.

This RKO film’s credits read as follows:

Jerry Wald and Norman Krasna present

Barbara Stanwyck
Paul Douglas
Robert Ryan
Marilyn Monroe
     with
 J. Carrol Naish
 Keith Andes

Produced by Harriet Parsons

Directed by Fritz Lang

Screenplay by Alfred Hays
     based on the play by Clifford Odets
Filmed in Monterey in 1951-1952

Stills:

•    Clash by Night   Movie Poster
•    Produced by  Harriet Parsons
•    Barbara Stanwyck  at Angelo's on fisherman's Wharf    
            (Exterior shots are of Angelo's on the wharf. Interior shots were in Pop Ernests' ablone restartuant
            at the wharf entrance)
•    Fish on conveyor   to "cutting shed" in cannery
•    Marylin Monroe in her first co-starring scene as     a fish cutter

10/12/05

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