Midnight (1934)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Chester Erskine

Writers:

Paul Sifton (play) and
Claire Sifton (play)

Release Date:

7 March 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance

Plot:

Jury foreman Edward Weldon's questioning leads to the death sentence for Ethel Saxon. His daughter Stella claims to have killed her lover...

Plot Keywords:

Time For Title | Based On Play

Cast

Sidney Fox	...	Stella Weldon
O.P. Heggie	...	Edward Weldon
Henry Hull	...	Nolan
Margaret Wycherly	...	Mrs. Weldon
Lynne Overman	...	Joe Biggers (as Lynn Overman)
Katherine Wilson	...	Ada Biggers
Richard Whorf	...	Arthur Weldon
Humphrey Bogart	...	Gar Boni
Granville Bates	...	Henry McGrath
Cora Witherspoon	...	Elizabeth McGrath
Moffat Johnston	...	Dist. Atty. Plunkett (as Moffat Johnson)
Henry O'Neill	...	Ingersoll (as Henry O'Neil)
Helen Flint	...	Ethel Saxon

Also Known As:

Call It Murder (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Wide Range Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Biograph Studios, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

All Star Productions

Trivia:

Based on the flop play, Midnight (1930). Drama. Written by Claire Sifton and Paul Sifton. Directed by Philip Moeller. Guild Theatre: 29 Dec 1930- Feb 1931 (closing date unknown/48 performances). Cast: Maud Allan, Glenn Anders (as "Bob Nolan"), Harold Bolton, Zena Colaer, Josephine Hull (as "Mrs. Weldon"), William R. Kane, Jack La Rue (as "Gar Boni"), Tom H.A. Lewis, Harriet E. MacGibbon (as "Ada Biggers"), Clifford Odets (as "Arthur Weldon"), James Parker, Frederick Perry, Francis Pierlot (as "Richard McGrath"), Charles Powers, Samuel Rosen, Neal Stone, Robert Strange, Fred Sullivan, Royal Dana Tracey, Louis Veda (as "Photographer"), Harold Vermilyea (as "Joe Biggers"), Linda Watkins. Produced by The Theatre Guild.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Ethel Saxon: You see, I loved him. I mean I loved him when... when he didn't love me anymore, day in and day out watching him get further and further away from me. I could see in his eyes when he looked at me... I could see he hated me, hated me because I needed him...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) (TV)

The Law IsThe Law

Humphrey Bogart receives top billing in this film, which is somewhat surprising since he actually isn't in the movie all that much. He plays a man named Gar Boni, boyfriend of a woman (Sidney Fox) whose father (O.P. Heggie) was the foreman of a jury that convicted a woman of murder and had her sentenced to death. On the night the woman is due to be executed, the family gathers with friends who all try to convince Weldon (the father) that he should intervene to prevent the execution. (How a jury foreman would intervene at this late date is never answered.) He refuses, only to have his daughter stumble into the house, announcing that she's killed Gar. Weldon then has to decide whether to protect her or turn her over to the law.

All things considered this movie hasn't aged particularly well. The acting is mediocre and the story of Weldon's daughter killing Gar on the same night the woman Weldon's jury convicted is to be executed is just too neat and tidy and contrived. No doubt this deserves some credit for tackling a controversial subject, and the movie seems to be an early example of advocating leniency for women who kill men who are unkind to them. Still, simply tackling a difficult subject isn't enough to make a bad movie into a good one. Fans of Bogart will be both interested and disappointed in this one: interested because it represents a look at one of his very early roles and disappointed because it's such a limited one. The other disappointment, of course, will be that this is really such a poor movie. 3/10