During One Night also released as Night of Passion is a 1961 British drama film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Don Borisenko and Susan Hampshire.

It was Susan Hampshire's first film role.

During One Night

It was Walton Studios' last production.

During One Night

It is a fairly gritty but unusual plot line, involving nudity and deep sexual subjects.

During One Night

Plot

David is a Captain in the American Airforce, based in the South of England during the Second World War. His logic and actions are thrown off course when his Co-Pilot Mike is seriously injured during a mission. Mike survives but the loss of his genitals drives him to suicide, David sets out on a night of potential passion wishing to ensure that he does not die a virgin before his next and final flying mission the following day. He is handsome in his uniform, while nervously chain-smoking, witty but stumbles over his words and lacks confidence.

David has visited Mike in hospital, Mike is distraught at the idea of his injuries interfering with a future sex-life, and begs David to give him any sharp object so he can end his life. David refuses, horrified, and goes to meet his friends in the Mess bar. They gleefully discuss having arranged to appointments with a local sex-worker, but David is pre-occupied by his upsetting visit with Mike and insists on being left alone.

At some point David changes his mind and decides to join his friends illicit trip, he is told where to find the prostitute, who is expecting him. David pays his £5, the sex-worker is chatty, constantly calling David 'sweetie', while David remains quiet and nervous. The woman does her business-like best, especially after realising David is a virgin, but David is unable to have sex, he asks her not to tell his friends and she assures him she won't. The woman gives David practical advice to find an 'amateur' at a dance who'll engage for free, as she hurriedly gets ready for her next client.

David meets up with his friends again, where they are given the news that Mike has succeeded in killing himself. David turns away, facing the camera, and is left alone in shock. He goes to a local dance, still trying to find a female partner. His first choice declines him, saying they haven't been properly introduced, but then an attractive young woman (Jackie Collins) dances with him, they seem to get on well and she quickly asks him to come home with her. But it's a ruse; when the woman asks David to wait outside while she checks if her landlady is around, her male accomplices then appear and violently mug him, stealing his money. They note how well-paid Airmen are, as they head on to another dance and their next victim.

David heads to a nice country Pub to drown his sorrows. He asks the landlady what time the next bus to London is, (planning to escape and desert from the air-force) but by closing time he is unconscious, slumped over the table. The landlady tells her daughter Jean (Hampshire) that she'll call the MPs Military Police to collect him, but Jean tells her mother that she can deal with it, so the landlady retires upstairs – Jean has been watching David, from behind the bar, and seems interested in him. Jean attempts to sober David up, and hides him from the MPs as they check for stragglers from the base. They talk while Jean dries David's jacket in front of the fire, David attempts a kiss but Jean turns away in shyness. They carry on talking until David finally leaves on his mission to get to London, he's missed the 10:30pm bus, so sets out walking. Jean is seen in the Pub, thinking, then pouring herself a large drink, presumably for courage. She seems unused to alcohol as grimaces at the taste of it.

We then see Jean cycling to catch up with David on the road, she asks if she can walk with him, then feigns an ankle injury to steer them into a nearby barn together. They talk further, David explains how he's afraid he'll die on his last mission tomorrow without having experienced sex, Jean reveals that she faked the ankle injury, that unlike David she is not a virgin, and wishes to 'help' him with his quest. They both undress at different sides of the barn, the pathos of the scene set against slightly jarring background music. Next, we see them laid together, with David unhappy that he has been unable to consummate the act, and reassuring Jean it isn't her but him, admitting that he'd had the same problem earlier that night when he'd paid for sex. Jean admits that she lied about having previously had sex, because she wanted to help David.