Midnight (Universal Cinema Classics)
starring: Charles Brackett, Claudette Colbert, John Barrymore, Don Ameche, Mary Astor
directed by: Mitchell Leisen
directed by: Mitchell Leisen
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Product Description:
A showgirl poses as a countess & lives it up with the rich as she hides her true identity.Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca)Release Date: 04/22/2008Starring: Claudette Colbert John BarrymoreRun time: 94 minutesRating: Nr
Amazon.com essential video:
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
A showgirl poses as a countess & lives it up with the rich as she hides her true identity.Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca)Release Date: 04/22/2008Starring: Claudette Colbert John BarrymoreRun time: 94 minutesRating: Nr
Amazon.com essential video:
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
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!
Someone has already mentioned that Midnight is the greatest romantic comedy nobody has seen.Too true!
This is a delightful, lighter-than-air romp.The cast, sets, costumes and direction are flawless, topped only by the wit of the screenplay and Barrymore's hysterical performance.Was he drunk during filming?Was he parodying hmself?Does it matter?He's fabulous!
I happened to catch a badly cut up version of this on late night TV years ago and have adored it ever ... Read More
Rating: - Midnight
This is a great classic movie. John Barrymore steals the show. Very enjoyable. I highly recommend this movie to all. Don Ameche, Claudette Colbert, Mary Astor and John Barrymore.
Rating: - Favorite movie of all time
I was thrilled when Amazon began selling this one.I agree with the others - I've shown it to a few people who are dead set against any movie made before 1960, and they loved it.
Rating: - One of the Greatest Screwball Comedies!
This movie is little known compared to It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby and several other films.I can't understate how great this comedy is.I first saw it several years ago at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY which is a classic movie theatre attached to the George Eastman House.I was in high school and loved screwball comedies.I had never heard of this one though.I laughed until my sides hurt and totally fell in love with John Barrymore and Don Ameche.Claudette Colbert was already ... Read More
Rating: - "MidnightlyMadness"
Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche sizzle in another production which displays Colbert's genius as a commedienne. She goes smoothly from one ridiculous situation to another in her attempts to take on the persona of a baroness, while in actuality she is a down and out "American in Paris."There is a reason for her facade and the story gets juicier and juicier. This classic of the Thirties is superior to most other comedies and a model of what a good romantic comedy should be.Take heed Hollywood.
- DO NOT MISS THIS ONE!Someone has already mentioned that Midnight is the greatest romantic comedy nobody has seen.Too true!
This is a delightful, lighter-than-air romp.The cast, sets, costumes and direction are flawless, topped only by the wit of the screenplay and Barrymore's hysterical performance.Was he drunk during filming?Was he parodying hmself?Does it matter?He's fabulous!
I happened to catch a badly cut up version of this on late night TV years ago and have adored it ever ... Read More
- MidnightThis is a great classic movie. John Barrymore steals the show. Very enjoyable. I highly recommend this movie to all. Don Ameche, Claudette Colbert, Mary Astor and John Barrymore.
- Favorite movie of all timeI was thrilled when Amazon began selling this one.I agree with the others - I've shown it to a few people who are dead set against any movie made before 1960, and they loved it.
- One of the Greatest Screwball Comedies!This movie is little known compared to It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby and several other films.I can't understate how great this comedy is.I first saw it several years ago at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY which is a classic movie theatre attached to the George Eastman House.I was in high school and loved screwball comedies.I had never heard of this one though.I laughed until my sides hurt and totally fell in love with John Barrymore and Don Ameche.Claudette Colbert was already ... Read More
- "MidnightlyMadness"Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche sizzle in another production which displays Colbert's genius as a commedienne. She goes smoothly from one ridiculous situation to another in her attempts to take on the persona of a baroness, while in actuality she is a down and out "American in Paris."There is a reason for her facade and the story gets juicier and juicier. This classic of the Thirties is superior to most other comedies and a model of what a good romantic comedy should be.Take heed Hollywood.
