Midnight (Universal Cinema Classics)

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Midnight (Universal Cinema Classics)

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Academy Award® winners* Claudette Colbert Don Ameche and John Barrymore light up the screen in Midnight - one of the best romantic comedies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The fun begins when a penniless showgirl (Colbert) impersonates a Hungarian countess and with the help of an aristocrat (Barrymore) quickly adapts to her new lifestyle. But can she stop herself from falling in love with yet another poor man (Ameche)? Written by Academy Award® winners** Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett Midnight has been hailed as "just about the best light comedy ever caught by the camera!" (Motion Picture Daily)System Requirements:Running Time: 95 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/SCREWBALL COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 025193312921 Manufacturer No: 61033129

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Although Hollywood's golden year of 1939 is best remembered for Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, it was also a banner year for sophisticated screen comedy, and Mitchell Leisen's Midnight is a deliciously prime example. Screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett were in peak form when they concocted this smooth confection about Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert), an American showgirl in Paris who is out of work, money, and luck when a handsome cabbie (Don Ameche) offers to drive her around the City of Light to search for employment as a nightclub chanteuse. Nobody's hiring, but Eve has a better plan: posing as a Hungarian countess, she smuggles her way into Parisian high society and suddenly finds herself in the lap of luxury, commissioned by a wealthy aristocrat (John Barrymore) to seduce a French playboy (Francis Lederer) away from Barrymore's not-so-loyal wife (Mary Astor). While Eve is living it up at the Ritz Hotel and enjoying trips to Versailles, Ameche's on a mission to find her and declare his true love.

Class distinction, infidelity, false identity... these were daring ingredients for a 1939 comedy, and Midnight (a casebook display of Paramount's shimmering studio style of the '30s) is as fresh today as it was when first released. The silky perfection of the Wilder-Brackett screenplay is expertly served by Leisen (a director who deserves ranking with Ernst Lubitsch and Preston Sturges), and Colbert is merely the brightest star in a flawless cast of screwball veterans. Poking fun at the elite was a Wilder-Brackett specialty, and Barrymore is particularly savvy to the material, giving a performance that's simultaneously sly, desperate, and hilariously inspired. The plot is so elegantly executed that Midnight makes most comedies of later decades look pale in comparison. Gone are the days, it seems, when sophistication, wit, and good taste were an integral part of Hollywood comedy. Midnight offers all of those qualities in abundance, making it a perfect antidote to the crudeness that dominates mainstream comedy at the turn of the millennium. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Rating:
Date: 2008-07-08
COOKY COMEDY
This is one of those funny stories that can only happen in a movie! But it's very entertaining, fast moving and recommended to any old Hollywood movie buffs.

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-09
Midnight Shines as Madcap Comedy
Midnight is a very funny movie in the vein usually associated with Preston Sturgis. The comedy is what we used to call "adult" back when the movie was new, but there is nothing to offend the average person and a great deal to charm and amuse. It is perhaps not the very best of its genre, but it is certainly very good.

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-08
One of the most under appreciated movies ever
"Midnight" is one of my favoriate all time comedies. If you haven't seen it, rent it, buy it, or see it at some revival theatre. Hysterical!

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-04
One of my favorite movies
Classic Claudette Colbert movie. She is stunning. Featured cast is hilarious Don Ameche and Lionel Barrymore make the film. A must see!!!!

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-30
Brilliant sharp comedy
Released in 1939, "Midnight" is one of those thirties Paramount comedy gems which is cherished by buffs but often overlooked in evaluations of the best films of the decade. Cynical and sharp with Billy Wilder involved in the script, the heroine is a really tough nut. Amazon have provided a great review so here a few personal comments:

- ensemble playing of this standard simply does not exist anymore
- Don Ameche plays with real edge in contrast to the insipid parts which 20th Centrury Fox saddled him with. He is masculine and magnetic
- Claudette Colbert combines her tongue in cheek quality with a really hard edge which makes the heroine a fascinating creature
- John Barrymore, in spite of reading from prompt cards, is superb. His constant looks of bemusement and secret delight at the next flight of fantasy of Colbert are at the heart of the cynicism of the script
- the film has that glitter which signifies a Paramount product and the director Mitchell Liesen. The women are dressed magnificently
- Hedda Hopper, the famous gossip columninst, has an amusing part as a society dame
- the film is a great example of what could be achieved with a great script and players in spite of the Hays Code.

The print of the film is excellent but the extras are only a "nothing" introduction by Robert Osborne and the original trailer. The DVD is not great value but the film is such a gem, it is still worth it.

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