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Main Street After Dark

1945 film by Edward L. Cahn

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ18636474
Source-derived summary

Main Street After Dark is a 1945 American drama film directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by John C. Higgins and Karl Kamb. The film stars Edward Arnold, Selena Royle, Tom Trout, Audrey Totter, Dan Duryea, Hume Cronyn and Dorothy Morris. The film was released on January 12, 1945, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Plot

Lt. Lorrigan has his hands full with the Dibson criminal family. Ma Dibson's thieving son Lefty is about to get out of prison. Her daughter Rosalie and Lefty's wife Jessie Belle pick up military servicemen in bars and steal from them.

Lorrigan keeps an eye on all. He frisks Lefty's brother Posey, warning the Dibsons to keep out of trouble. Lefty immediately plans to rob McBain, owner of the bar where Rosalie and Jessie Belle fleece the servicemen.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Main Street After Dark” is 1945 film by Edward L. Cahn. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Main, Street and Dark, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1945—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1945. For this dossier, Main, Street and Dark is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1945 film by Edward L. Cahn” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18636474. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Main Street After Dark”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Main Street After Dark primary sources, Main Street After Dark archive and Main research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Main Street After Dark”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Main Street After Dark” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.