Customer Reviews

Midnight [VHS]

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Directed by Mitchell Leisen(unjustly forgotten helmer of many wonderful "golden age" films-and former designer for DeMille),written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett at their wittiest, and starring Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Mary Astor and an incomparable John Barrymore-well, it's even better than it sounds. Beautifully polished and mounted production. Definitely a very adult "screwball" comedy with loads of innuendo, brilliantly played. I've seen this both on TV and in a theatre, and judging from audience reaction, every one of them loved it. This is one of those titles you can show to people who've usually little interest in "old" movies-and convert them!

MIDNIGHT is the greatest classic Hollywood comedy that almost no one has seen. Why this isn't better known is a bit of a mystery. The film is well directed, well scripted, well acted, and well produced. The film is directed by Mitchell Leisen, who has been unjustly forgotten for the misfortune of having directed a series of extremely fine films based on screenplays by two writers who would later become famous directors in their own right: Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges. But Leisen put his own distinctive touch on the films he directed, and that is nowhere truer than this superb film. Nonetheless, the screenplay is superb, by one of the greatest writers of comedies in the history of cinema, Billy Wilder. Although he had been in Hollywood for a while, this was the first screenplay in which he truly hit his stride, the first in a series of stellar scripts (including NINOTCHKA for Lubitsch, ARISE MY LOVE and HOLD BACK THE DAWN for Leisen, and BALL OF FIRE for Howard Hawks) that led to his own shot at directing. Charles Brackett worked with Wilder as usual, Wilder functioning as the story originator and gagman, and Brackett cleaning up the Germanicisms cluttering Wilder's sentences. The cast is superb, with Claudette Colbert turning in one of her greatest performances as a young woman determined to capture a rich husband, but who instead inconveniently gets involved with a Parisian cab driver. Don Ameche was never better than in this film playing that Parisian cab driver. Mary Astor, who was extremely pregnant during filming, is her usual superb self, while the rest of the cast is littered with talented veteran character actors. The most bittersweet performance is the simultaneous hysterical and tragic performance by John Barrymore as a drunken dissipated nobleman. No question, the man turns in a funny, funny performance, but it is tragic because the appearance of drunkenness and dissipation was not the result of acting. Barrymore was suffering from advanced alcoholism during the filming, and was only a couple of years away from his premature death brought on by cirrhosis of the liver. The man once known as "The Great Profile" no longer was the extraordinarily handsome man he had been only five years earlier. He is funny, but it somehow seems unfitting that one of the great stage and screen actors of the 20th century should have ended his career as a bit of a buffoon.

The screenplay is if a kind that we no longer see, and was the result of a huge influx of European talent in the 1930s escaping the political situation in Europe. So many great films directed by Lubitsch and Wilder and others put an enormously European twist to love and romance, and in no film is this more true than this one: an adventurous woman trying to scale the social ladder by snaring a man, a gigolo seducing another man's wife, the husband scheming to reclaim his wife with the help of the would-be adventurous, and meanwhile a poor cabbie trying to find the woman he loves. Delicious stuff, and it is a credit to Leisen and the largely non-European cast that they pull the whole thing off so believably. In this film, at least, he manages a European elegance and sophistication that would have done Lubitsch proud.

High stepping, leggy American chorus girl, Eve Peabody, played by the lovely Claudette Colbert at her zenith, lands in Paris of the nineteen thirties dead broke with only the gold lame evening gown on her back. She meets a handsome cabbie, played by the dashing Don Ameche, who is smitten with her. She disappears on him and ends up at a society fete, where she adopts the cabbie's surname and poses as a Hungarian baroness.

There, she meets a wealthy couple, deliciously played by John Barrymore and Mary Astor. Ms. Astor has been smitten by a French playboy, played by the very handsome Francis Lederer, who appears to be smitten by the baroness. Barrymore knows that she is not a baroness, but keeps quiet. He treats her to a taste of luxury and then hires her to play the role she adopted, so as to make sure his wife's budding romance is nipped in the bud. As the baroness, she is to lure Lederer away from Astor, saving their marriage in the process.

In the interim, our smitten cabbie has enlisted all the cabbies in Paris to help find Ms. Peabody. He manages to track her down at yet another society fete, where he arrives dressed in a tux and is announced as her husband, the baron. Meanwhile, the wealthy and handsome playboy has declared his intentions towards the baroness. Let the games begin! What will the baroness do? Will she remain with the "baron"? Will she marry the wealthy French playboy? Watch the film and find out.

Look for lots of lively, fast paced dialogue. The performances are wonderful, and the dialogue is often witty. This is a reminder of the golden era of hollywood films. It is an absolutely delightful and zany romantic comedy.

This is one of the most sophisticated and funny comedies I've seen in my whole life, thanks to one of the wittiest screenplays ever (by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, et al), deft direction by Mitchell Leisen, expertly paced, with a top cast, the best costumes, very elegant sets, etc.

Claudette Colbert is wisecracking chorus girl Eve Peabody (later Baroness Czerny), stranded in Paris, who is befriended by taxi driver Tibor Czerny (played by Don Ameche, in one of his best roles) and ends rubbing elbows with the "smart-set", with unexpected results. For those who have watched Anatole Litvak's "Tovarich" (1937) on TCM, starring Colbert and Charles Boyer, it has a similar premise, but the other way round, because in the latter Colbert, a Russian Grand Duchess who belongs to that country's Royal Family, pretends to be a maid.

The cast is full of excellent players: John Barrymore who impersonates with great skill, Monsieur Flammarion, a role somehow reminiscent of the one he played in "Twentieth Century" opposite Carole Lombard, but in a much "understated" manner. Mary Astor, as his unfaithful wife is rightly "stiff-upper-lip", high class and disdainful. Francis Lederer is very good as her lover, Jacques Picot, who falls under the spell of Colbert's charms. Rex O'Malley is Astor's wisecracking friend, Marcel Renard.

This movie has definitely the trademark "Paramount Look" and the great settings recreate Paris very well. There are many very funny scenes, especially those at the soirée offered by pretentious socialité Hedda Hopper and the party that takes place at the Flammarion Residence in Versailles, where all the guests dance "La Conga". Unforgettable.

This is a wonderful, hilarious, and sadly overlooked film. It's a shame it isn't out on DVD, but the VHS version I saw was very good quality. The picture was clear, the sound was never dead and the dialogue was easy to hear.

This should be an essential for any fan of classic screwball comedies. I think the innocuous name, "Midnight," makes it easy to overlook and perhaps difficult to find.

Colbert is obviously in her element here, as an unpretentious, down-on-her luck American in Hollywood's Paris who transforms into the "Baroness Czerny" and cons the Parisian elite. Don Ameche plays the Hungarian taxi driver (who sounds like he's from Pittsburgh) who pursues her. All of the characters are superb, and the script is one of the best. John Barrymore is hysterical as the kindly husband trying to win back his wife. The scene over the phone when he's imitating the baby is priceless.

The screenplay to this movie can't be praised enough. It has the kind of social satire and romantic comedy that survives for generations. See this classic. You won't regret it.

This movie is pure heaven!!! Claudette Colbert, the greatest romantic comedienne in movie history gives her finest perforamnce here. It's even better than her Oscar-winning IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. The movie is both utterly romantic and wickedly funny. Don Ameche is a wonderful leading man for Queen Colbert and John Barrymore is hilarious in easily his best film performance during his later "second lead" film career. The Billy Wilder script is just wonderful but thank Heaven Mitchell Leisen was the director!! Wilder unquestionably would have made a far more cynical film whereas Leisen keeps the romance and beauty flowing through. The clock will never strike midnight for this legendary comedy!!

Where do I start in describing this wonderful film which has no peer as the best of the sophisticated comedies of the 30's. Quite simply it is funny, glowing with sophistication, brilliantly written with every attention to detail taken into account.
Without a doubt it is the crowning glory of Claudette Colbert's film career and "Midnight" shows her at the peak of her ability and lovliness in a role superbly suited to her wonderful talents.
There are so many memorable scenes in this film that it would be impossible to relate them to readers who haven't yet had the pleasure of viewing this gem. The scene of scenes is, I believe, the truly brilliant telephone conversation between John Barrymore (in a truly wonderful performance )and Don Ameche where he pretends to be Francy, Claudette's and Don Ameche's fictional daughter. It is an absolute riot and will have you convulsing with laughter like it does me time and time again. For that scene alone the video is worth purchasing! As complication piles upon complication the story just gets funnier.
What a joyous marriage of talent and writing this film provides. The supporting cast is a marvellous asset here with Mary Astor as Barrymore's unfaithful wife a real stand out. She was a fascinating actress who I feel never got the real credit she deserved. Here se is brittle then bitchy and then comical in a terrific performance.
The film also benefits from the fact of it being a product of the Golden era of Hollywood film making. What film company could possibly produce such a film as this now. Very few present day films "glow' as this one does and certainly there are no "stars' to compare with the likes of Colbert, Barrmore, Ameche, Astor. The expensive look and attention to detail evident in the film also helps tremendously with this tale set among the upper strata of Parisian society. Paramount did a wonderful job considering the whole film was done in Hollwood.
An A+ time is guaranteed when you step into the champagne, weekend country house world of "Midnight" Enjoy!!

Claudette Colbert is essentially Cinderella in this clever twist on the Cinderella storyline. She's a penniless, but resourceful American in Paris, who through a few twists of fate, ends up impersonating a Hungarian Baroness, joining the upper echelons of society in the process. Her fairy godmother is John Barrymore, who assists her in her charade to entice Francis Lederer, a playboy flirting with Mary Astor, Barrymore's wife. Don Ameche is the cab driver who has fallen in love with the real Claudette, and he wants her back. If it sounds complicated, it is, but in the hands of screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, it makes perfect sense. The script is tightly and smoothly written, with terrific dialogue and screwball comedy mixed together. Wilder and Brackett take the Cinderella idea and make it something entirely different for adults. Colbert proves again in this film what a wonderful comedienne she was, giving a shrewd performance as the girl who charms everyone. She's given hilarious support by Barrymore, who enlivens every scene he's in, especially his phone conversation with Colbert and Ameche. The rest of the cast are terrific as well. Director Mitchell Leisen does his usual classy job in a film that reminds you just how smart and fun classic Hollywood comedies could be in the hands of people like Wilder, Colbert, Barrymore, and Leisen.

Prefectly casted and hilariously funny, "Midnight" is a movie that will either have you curiously engaged or hysterically laughing the whole way through.
The story begins with an American woman getting of a train in Paris with nothing but the gold evening gown on her back, a matching clutch bag, and no protection from the rain that pours down around her. She has no money, no other clothes, no job and no friends.
She recieves kindness from a rather good looking cabby, who she says she will pay him double the cost of the venture if he takes her around town to look for night club jobs. The search ends fruitlessly, and she gives up in dispair. She says that they ought to part ways even though she has racked a horrible bill. He by now has taken a liking to her. And after buying her a cheap spageti dinner, says that she will spend night at his apartment because he is going to be out all night working any way. Knowing that she is falling in love with him,she runs out on him when his back is turned filling the cab with gas.
The plot takes its twists and turns, while she gets paid to pretend to be a baroness with fancey clothes, a nice apartment, and plenty of spending cash. He, all the while, in his avid pusuit of her gathers his cabby buddies to find out where she ran off to.
The storey ends in a hilariously rewarding manner. But don't think that I am going to ruin it for you!
Despight it's lackluster title, "Midnight" is a movie worth watching even for those who aren't fond of the old classics.
And I have to say, as good as it was, "Midnight" definantly outshines the great Frank Capra classic, "It Happend One Night.

Why isn't this movie better known? Why isn't it on DVD? It's a perfectly pitched romantic comedy, with a dream cast, witty script, terrific timing and one hilarious line or scene after another. It's got a sheen that holds up far better than many comedies of the same period, especially "It Happened One Night," which is very dated and almost lumpy in comparison. I can watch this again and again. It soars. It's movies like this that inspired me to write comic mysteries, though I know I'm no Billy Wilder.

Lev Raphael, author of the Nick Hoffman mysteries