Although Edward Arnold did play some other good guys in his career, it's one that's normally associated with villainy. So he must have looked on with gratitude to MGM for allowing him to play Baynard Kendrick's fictional blind detective Duncan MacLain in two films of which Eyes In The Night is the first. My guess is that if Arnold were an MGM contract player the screen might have seen more of the resourceful Duncan MacLain.
Blindness as it has in a lot of people has forced Duncan MacLain to rely on those remaining senses and has honed his intelligence to a fine edge. He thinks pretty fast on his feet, especially after being hired by Ann Harding gains entrance to her household while she's away by convincing her servants that he's a long lost blind uncle. It's from there he finds out what's going on.
Harding hires Arnold because she's concerned that her step daughter Donna Reed is getting in way over her head with actor John Emery. When Emery turns up dead later that's an understatement.
But when Arnold gets into the household and sees what an interesting group of servants Harding and husband Reginald Denny have, he's thinking that romance might not just be at the bottom of this mystery.
Aided by filmdom's most remarkable dog since Rin Tin Tin in the canine of Friday, MacLain is also aided for strong arm stuff by his driver Allen Jenkins. Although as you will see in the film, Arnold when he gets in close is every bit up to the rough house aspect of the gumshoe profession.
The cast is excellent, especially butler Stanley Ridges who becomes Arnold's opposite number in terms of wit and intelligence. A worthy Moriarty type to Arnold's Holmes.
It's too bad that film never saw more of Duncan MacLain.
