MIDNIGHT (Paramount 1939) Universal Home Video

Based on a story idea by Edwin Justus Mayer and Franz Schulz, director, Mitchell Leisen’s Midnight (1939) is a superior example of the romantic screwball comedy in all its turbulent, quick shot, ‘shoot from the hip’ hilarity. The screenplay eventually ironed out by writers, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder teems with an elevated sense of utter frivolity, greatly enhanced by an all-star cast that includes Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Mary Astor and John Barrymore. Midway through Midnight, Leisen discovered Astor was pregnant, necessitating clever camouflage of her ‘condition’ in several key sequences yet to be shot. Reportedly, tensions on the set flared between Leisen and his writers, reaching a fevered pitch after the director began tampering with Brackett and Wilder’s light construction and dialogue. Leisen banned both Brackett and Wilder from the set, causing Wilder to retreat in a huff to Paramount’s front offices and demand he be allowed to direct future assignments he wrote so that no one would have the right to bastardize his work. From start to finish, Midnight is a hoot. In a year, still widely regarded as the ‘greatest ever’ for old-school Hollywood picture-making, Midnight ranked as just another ‘lesser’ offering, when, in any other year, it might have been considered a stand-out of the ‘little gem’ class. And, in hindsight, it is easy to see why. The picture bounces along on the sparkling champagne cocktail ether of Brackett and Wilder’s efficiently contrived screwball scenarios; the stars, giving it their all.  What a refined, urbane and silly story Midnight remains, with a confluence of charm and class to recommend it.

Our story begins in earnest with the auspicious arrival of American showgirl, Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) in Paris in a torrential downpour. With no luggage, no money and no place to stay, Eve persuades a big-hearted Hungarian taxi driver, Tibor Czerny (Don Ameche) to drive her all over town looking for a job at some of the more fashionable nightclubs in exchange for doubling his fare. After an unsuccessful pub crawl, Tibor buys his disillusioned Miss dinner and offers overnight accommodations at his humble flat while he finishes his night shift. Eve is almost immediately attracted to Tibor. Nevertheless, she manages to slip away, and, into a black-tie concert. Learning someone has crashed their soiree using a pawn ticket, the concert’s hostess, Stephanie (Hedda Hopper) interrupts the proceedings to flush out the impostor.  Attempting to sneak out, Eve is intercepted by Marcel Renaud (Rex O'Malley), who invites her to a game of bridge in another room. The other players are the flamboyant, Madame Helene Flammarion (Mary Astor) and a wealthy womanizer, Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer). Eve concocts a persona - Madame Czerny – for herself and is partnered with Jacques. Meanwhile, Helene's husband, Georges (John Barrymore), in search of the party’s gatecrasher, feigns to recognize Eve as the wife of ‘Baron Czerny.’ At game’s end, Eve and Jacques owe a few thousand francs. However, even as Eve plots to leave with only an IOU, she is suddenly astonished to find 10,000 francs neatly tucked into her purse. Lying to Jacques about staying at the Ritz, the wily cad insists on escorting Eve to the hotel where, again, Eve is startled to discover she already has a suite of rooms reserved in her name.

Meanwhile, Tibor goes in search of Eve, recruiting his fellow taxi drivers in an organized pool, five francs to a head, and winner take all to whoever finds Eve first. By dawn’s light, Eve gets yet another surprise: her ‘luggage’, complete with a lavishly appointed wardrobe. A car and chauffeur are waiting outside. Eventually, Georges reveals himself to be Eve’s mysterious benefactor. The explanation is quite simple. Helene and Jacques are carrying on a notorious affair. Georges does not want to lose his wife. And thus, taking notice of Jacques sudden interest in Eve, Georges has decided she might be useful in luring this Lochinvar away from his wife; especially, if Jacques suspects he is falling in love with a wealthy Baroness. To this end, Georges has offered to fund the experiment completely, affording Eve the accoutrements of a wealthy aristocrat, including fifty thousand francs. Georges also invites Eve to the Flammarion estate in Versailles for a weekend retreat at which time she will be expected to win Jacques heart. The ruse works. Jacques becomes thoroughly captivated by Eve. On route to the estate, Eve and Jacques are identified by one of the taxi drivers who wastes no time revealing her whereabouts to Tibor. He is bewildered to learn she has been staying at the Ritz under his name. Meanwhile, Helene suspects Eve is an impostor and with Marcel’s help, retrieves Eve’s suitcases to inspect.

Eve and Jacques arrive at the estate together, much to Helene's chagrin. When Marcel examines one of Eve’s portmanteaux, he finds a photograph of Eve and some showgirls. Helene is all set to expose the ‘Baroness’ as a fraud when Baron Tibor Czerny is announced. Tibor informs his hosts he has come to reconcile with his wife. Concerned Tibor will ruin all her well-laid plans, Eve keeps up the pretext Tibor is her husband to avoid a scene, and, also, to throw Helene and Jacques off her scent. Meanwhile, Tibor professes his love for Eve. Although she feels the same way, having grown up poor, Even is steadfastly determined to wed for money. Suspecting Tibor will reveal the truth, simply to derail her plans, Eve concocts a scenario about the Baron – afflicted by madness, a story backed by Georges. Thus, when Tibor reappears in his taxi driver’s uniform, the Flammarions humor his ‘eccentricity’ until he is forced to retreat in anger. Still smitten with Eve, whom he now believes to be telling the truth, Jacques offers to aid in her plans to divorce the Baron so he can marry her. A mock divorce trial ensues, with Tibor forced to play along as Georges is now paying him off too. However, during the trial Tibor feigns insanity, knowing no French court will grant a divorce on such grounds. Cured of her romantic dalliances with Jacques, Helene accepts her husband’s love, even as Tibor and Eve head to the marriage bureau—much to the bewilderment of the judge who has just denied them a divorce.

Midnight is pure escapist fantasy; a sumptuously packaged entertainment with Colbert and Ameche at their very best as the feuding lovers destined to wind up together before the final reel. The picture’s charm rests with their intangibly satisfying on-screen chemistry; also, in the delicious cavalcade of fops and fancies to flesh out the tale. John Barrymore plays the enterprising Georges with such a high level of class and cunning, he proves a supreme foil for his wife’s meandering affections. Mary Astor’s fickle wife is justly amusing.  Interesting to consider Astor’s real-life peccadilloes here. Three years earlier, she made the tabloids, her dirty laundry aired in an exceedingly messy divorce that turned her private life into a very public scandal. For those unaware, we pause a moment to mark the occasion where Astor’s heady early years in Hollywood came under the topic of more agony than ecstasy.  Astor had yet to make a career of playing chic ladies of the Maison like the aristocratic Stephanie here. But she had, in fact, been married and widowed by 1939; her first husband, Ken Hawks (brother of the famed director, Howard) killed in WWI, and Mary, quickly falling for the bedside manner of Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, whom she wed shortly thereafter. To suggest the exposure of Astor’s more lurid details made her a star is a bit much. But there is little to deny it certainly generated a lot of heat and much interest – if not in her work – then, in the woman who could have so completely been seduced by Broadway’s imminent playwright and notorious womanizer, George S. Kaufman, while still Thorpe’s wife. For his part, Thorpe had used the incriminating contents of Astor’s diary to force her into giving up custody of their daughter. Determined also to wreck her image, Thorpe had even gone so far as to leak a few colorful pages of Astor’s ‘purple diary’ to the press. Even more insidiously, Astor had had multiple affairs, including a tryst with John Barrymore when she was only 17 to his 41 years-young in 1923. Kaufman, well-seasoned in the art of seduction, found his match in Astor, and, their affair was on – with hot, frenzied passion, to burn bright until the uneven tempered Thorpe became aware of it.

On September 25, 1987, Astor departed this world for the next, with impressions of her tantalizing loveliness, special refinement and captivating bravura still intact. Hardly considered a ‘sex goddess’ on par with Lana Turner or Marilyn Monroe, and, in fact, never to reach such heights in terms of ‘star quality’ either, Astor nevertheless appeared in more than 100 films throughout her lifetime, and, in each, proved far more than an ornamental novelty; the kind, Hollywood loves, because, even in absence of any genuine talent, it can sell enough tickets to make them profitable. Astor’s allure, however, was quite different and, in retrospect, ever-lasting. While the scandal Thorpe sincerely hoped would bankrupt his wife’s screen popularity actually proved an elixir to promote it, Astor’s acting chops were quite enough to manufacture and re-tool her image as more than just ‘a freak’ to be gawked at in supporting roles.  And Midnight, while hardly her finest hour, is nevertheless, a perfect vehicle for Astor to delight her fans, and mere curiosity seekers, playing the superficial and frivolous grand dame too many assumed she was in real life. In the final analysis, none of this behind-the-scenes fluff and nonsense mattered. Midnight emerged as a box office triumph, and remains to this day, 99 ½ % intoxicating movie magic; a delightfully obtuse comedy of errors that continues to charm with its bawdy sex appeal and great good humor. It deserves a top slot on everyone’s shelf of cherished movie memories.

Were that someone at Universal Home Video could conceive to remaster this one for Blu-ray. Midnight is certainly deserving of the time and effort. For now, we have the DVD - rather nicely realized. The B&W image exhibits a reasonably refined gray scale with smooth contrast levels. Occasionally, film grain and a hint of video noise distract. But these anomalies are rare and kept to a bare minimum. For the rest, whites are relatively clean. Blacks are generally solid and deep. The audio is Dolby Digital 1.0 mono as originally recorded and presented at an adequate listening level. The image and sound will surely not disappoint though they are less refined than one might expect. Universal continues to skimp on its classics. Extras are limited to a very brief intro by noted TCM host, the late Robert Osborne, and the film’s original theatrical trailer. It’s high time Midnight made the leap to Blu-ray.  We will champion a guess Kino Lorber is fast working on a rights issue to secure this one for hi-def. At least, we can hope!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3.5

EXTRAS

1