There are too many assumptions in this scene.
Nothing But the Night (1973) considers the problem of apparent murders which are not really murders, and apparent survivors who are really dead. Sort of. And the vulnerability of children in a classy orphanage.
Nothing But the Night, besides the nonsensical title, suffers from some choppy editing and unsympathetic characters, but has a story which keeps signaling it’s about to go off the rails and into the swamp, and then swerves right back onto the road at the last moment. Saving its one exempted moment of unbelievability until the very end, the tension builds as the audience wonders at each new challenge the storytellers have given themselves, until we are forced to a conclusion unpalatable and unbelievable. We are relieved of this tragedy by a yet greater unbelievability, though, and we collapse in horror and pity when a gaggle of orphaned children throw themselves off a cliff rather than face the horror of their future.
An emotionally graphic lesson in the Western aversion to death, the movie would have benefited from a deeper exploration of its central motivation, although by doing so it might have relieved some of the building tension, thereby losing momentum. That, and better editing, more imaginative dialog, and some other improvements and this could have been a memorable movie. Instead, it merely merits “Good Try.”
