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15 reviews in total

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28 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
Seamless blend of romantic drama, comedy, and even tragedy with breathtaking finale., 26 November 2002
Author: rfells@icfa.org from Fairfax, Virginia

Film critic Andrew Sarris once said that HISTORY IS MADE A NIGHT is the most romantic title in all of film history, and I'm happy to report that this movie lives up to its reputation. An independent production made by former MGM producer Walter Wanger, the film reputedly cost nearly a million dollars - a huge sum in 1937 - and the money really shows on the screen. Leads Charles Boyar and Jean Arthur have such a wonderful screen chemistry between them that it's surprising that they never made another film together. Director Frank Borzage was a specialist in romantic films and here he adroitly blends romantic drama, comedy and even tragedy into a seemless garment.

The plot is surprisingly complex but unfolds in a logical manner. A theme running throughout the story is mistaken identity and characters relying on mistaken information. Boyar thinks he's killed a man, but we know he didn't. Jean Arthur thinks he's thief, but we know he isn't. Arthur's husband thinks she's cheating on him, but we know she isn't. If you wonder how these and other plot points make any sense, you just have to see this film.

Composer Alfred Newman provided a charming theme for the film and I am surprised that it has never been issued in a modern recording of movie mood music. Leo Carrillo supplied hilarious support as Boyar's friend and the ill-fated Colin Clive gave a haunted, tormented performance as the villain. Clive is remembered today as the first Dr. Frankenstein in the first two of Universal's series, FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). By the time he made this film, a frail-looking Clive was only months away from his own death in June 1937 caused by alcoholism. His performance is all the more poignant as a result.

The film is climaxed by a Titanic-like shipwreck (huge ocean liner on its maiden voyage collides with an iceberg) leading to a final misunderstanding that results in an ironic but satisfying conclusion. The special effects work by James Basevi, while primitive by today's computer graphics standards, is nonetheless impressive. My only complaint is the relatively poor quality of the film print that is available on video today. Considering the fine restoration work that has been done on other films such as HIS GIRL FRIDAY, a restored HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT should be on some company's priority list.

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15 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
A hauntingly beautiful romance, 23 March 1999
Author: Tilly from Mississippi

Charles Boyer has never been more charming and Jean Arthur never more beautiful as impromptu lovers Paul and Irene. Colin Clive is brilliant as Irene's madly jealous and obsessive husband Bruce, who unwittingly brings the two lovers together and follows desperate measures to keep them apart. Boyer's and Arthur's tender love scenes make this film one of the greatest unsung screen romances.

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14 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Luminous, 29 August 2005
Author: hildacrane from United States

This mixture of suspense, comedy, and romance might seem unlikely to work, but it does, due to director Borzage's vision of a love that magically transcends even the most dire of obstacles. This movie is in love with love and the improbable, and in some ways is a Cinderella story almost in reverse (including the removal of a lady's slippers on two occasions). Arthur and Boyer are lovely together. Some of their scenes, luminously lit and heightened by Alfred Newman's lyrical score, are heartbreaking: their beautiful voices are almost like cellos. (Newman wrote a number of such tender and yearning scores in the thirties, including those for "Stella Dallas" and "These Three.") There's also an interesting paralleling of the love/passion that Arthur's husband has for her and that Boyer's friend has for him, although one is destructive and the other nurturing.

Years ago there was a local radio station in San Francisco that played short clips from films and invited listeners to identify the film and the actors and thereby win a prize. At that time I had never seen "History," but knew of it and its two stars, and was therefore able, on hearing the distinctive voices of Arthur and Boyer, to identify the film and be awarded a free fancy haircut.

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12 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A sublime, transcendent romance by the great Borzage, 23 November 2002
Author: Kalaman from Ottawa

Frank Borzage's "History Is Made at Night" is one of the most spiritually romantic of all films and a model of how to portray a sublime, gorgeous romance on screen. Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer have never been more sublime and magical; they give some of their most luminous and warmest performances. In many ways, this is Borzage's testament: full of warmth, humanity, and tenderness.

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12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
High romance, rivaling Casablanca in intensity., 3 January 2005

Author: d-letta from United States

I can't understand why this film isn't more recognized as a superior example of romantic movie-making. The cast is perfect, the cinematography (with one small exception of back projection that was jarring) is excellent, and the direction superb. Throw in a wonderful evocation of Paris (as good as Midnight), a great score and an incredibly moving final ten minutes and you have perfection. Everything comes together in perfect balance, much like Casablanca, and sadly so few other romantic films. I once asked a new acquaintance what his favorite film (he was eighteen at the time). When he responded History is Made at Night, I threw my arms around him and told him he'd won a place in my heart. Three cheers for History is Made at Night, a film that deserves rediscovery.

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9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Most romantic film ever shot in the English language, 7 April 2004
Author: Barry Grey (bgrey517@earthlink.net) from United States

When I wash up on that proverbial desert island with little more than a generator, a VCR (or DVD player) and a TV, I want "History is Made at Night" among the 10 films in my possession.

Someone -- film critic Myron Meisel, I think -- once described this as the most romantic film ever shot in the English language, and I completely agree.

The plot turns on some of the creakiest story points ever conceived. But no matter, because the leads are so appealing, the look of the film so overwhelmingly romantic (Borzage at his best) and the score is so warm and appropriate, that "HIMAN" is just irresistible.

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9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
A Long Shadow From Connemara, Ireland?, 12 May 2004
Author: theowinthrop from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I saw this for the first time in 1986 when it was on television. It's romance, and the superb acting of Clive, Boyer, and Arthur (abetted by Carillo and Lebedev), and the speed of events in it captivated me. And then came that "Titanic" - style ending, when the ship is nearly sunk on an iceberg was wonderful. The film just swept me into it. I rarely have found an undiscovered film that did that to me.

Colin Clive died prematurely of pneumonia in 1937, only a few months after this film was made. Remembered today for Victor Frankenstein in two films, he was more than simply the man who shouted "IT'S ALIVE!!". The two films that show his real acting ability that are still shown are his performances in this film and CHRISTOPHER STRONG (as the romantic lead opposite the young Kate Hepburn). JOURNEY'S END would be a welcome addition to this list, but I have never even seen it listed on cable (and I wonder if the film still exists). But his insanely jealous and vicious Bruce Vail must stand for all of his acting abilities until JOURNEY'S END reappears. Fortunately it is sufficient. Clive never is shown in a favorable manner in the movie. He is constantly watching Arthur's every move, and he constantly torments her. But this is how he treats everyone in his path. Ivan Lebedev was supposed to be a willing tool for a scheme to blackmail Arthur into returning to Clive. Lebedev is knocked out by Boyer, and looks dead when Boyer leaves with Arthur. Clive comes onto the scene, and sees that Lebedev is more valuable as a corpse than as a living servant - he kills him to have a weapon against Arthur and Boyer. Similarly, he is willing to sink his flagship on it's maiden voyage, killing hundreds of innocent people, to kill Arthur and Boyer. His suicide at the film's end really does not ameliorate his actions - in fact one wonders if he kills himself out of shame or because he believes his wife is dead (like a typical domestic violence wife killer). At the same time, had he not killed himself, Clive knew what he would have faced - he had screamed an order at the Captain of the ship by radio to continue sailing at top speed into the icepack, despite the Captain's misgivings. This was heard by his Board of Directors. As they sit glued to the radio, hearing the probable news of the ship's sinking, they keep glaring at Clive. Had the boat sunk, and he not committed suicide, they would have testified against him at his trial for mass murder.

He would have been probably hanged.

The name of his character is Bruce Vail, and one wonders why this shipping owner is named "Bruce". His ordering of his largest flagship, on it's maiden voyage, to sail at top speed into waters full of ice, may be based on another Bruce, who also died in 1937. That was J. Bruce Ismay (more properly "Joseph Bruce Ismay"), the former Chairman of the White Star Line, who was a survivor of the sinking, in 1912, of R.M.S. Titanic. Ismay ordered Captain Smith to sail the new ship at top speed to try to capture the Atlantic Blue Riband (a momentary victory had it been successful - the Titanic was not built for speed, like her Cunard rivals Lusitania and Mauritania). He may have kept some of the ice messages Smith was to get from the Captain (most Titanic experts don't believe this, but the public did). But worst of all, unlike Astor, Strauss, Guggenheim, Widener, Butt, Millett, Stead, and the other celebrities on the ship, Ismay entered a lifeboat, and tried to keep his obvious survival from becoming glaringly public. It did not work, and he was (despite generous attempts at whitewashing him by Lord Mersey) pilloried by the public as a coward. He was forced out of all his business directorships, and the chairmanship of the shipping line his father founded. And he lived in exile at an estate at Connemara in Ireland. It really did not help. Children would follow him even there yelling "Coward, coward!" He was destroyed by the disaster that destroyed his flagship.

I believe that the shadow of Mr. Ismay is used to coat the character of Mr. Vail, possibly unfairly but probably based on the popular view of Ismay. Bruce Ismay died of diabetics in 1937. Unlike Bruce Vail he did not have to blow his brains out.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Obsessive Jealousy, 24 January 2007

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Colin Clive is one obsessed man. Insanely jealous of wife Jean Arthur's imaginary lovers, he still won't let her go in divorce. Before Arthur's got a real one in head waiter Charles Boyer.

History Is Made At Night is another one of Frank Borzage's romantic films with tender lovers and lots of soft focus cinematography. A common thread that seems to run in Borzage's films is forces that threaten to keep intended folks apart. This is true in Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm where it is the political situation in Germany of the twenties and thirties respectively. In History Is Made At Night, what keeps them apart is Boyer's conscience.

Colin Clive as the husband is a multimillion dollar owner of transoceanic ship line who sets a trap trying to catch Arthur in a compromising position. When total stranger Boyer walks in and breaks up the trap and hits Clive's chauffeur a few times, Clive being the obsessed fellow he is, kills the chauffeur and says a burglar did it.

Of course Boyer thinks he did it and when he finds out the Paris police are looking for him, he and Arthur go back to Paris from New York where they have run away to. They have the bad luck to be on one of Clive's ships where from a distance he controls the fate of all.

Boyer and Arthur make a beautiful couple in love. However a biography of Jean Arthur assures us there was nothing to anything about that.

This was also Colin Clive's farewell film. Sadly he died a few months after this film was out. Known primarily for being Baron Frankenstein, creator of the undead, he was so much more than that as this film aptly demonstrates.

We also can't forget Leo Carrillo who plays chef Caesar who aids and abets Boyer and Arthur's romance. Carrillo was a guy who always added something to any film he was in.

If tender romance and ship board excitement are your thing than History Is Made At Night is your film indeed.

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7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Obsession, Jealousy and Love, 7 December 2007

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The obsessive and jealous shipowner Bruce Vail (Colin Clive) does not accept the divorce his wife Irene Vail (Jean Arthur) achieved in London, and he hires his driver Michael Browsky (Ivan Lebedeff) to forge adultery with Irene in Paris to make the decree null. However, she is rescued by the headwaiter Paul Dumond (Charles Boyer), who punches Michael and locks Bruce and his private eyes in a locker, and they spend a wonderful night together in the restaurant Château Bleu, where Paul and his best friend Chef Cesare (Leo Carrillo) work, and they fall in love for each other. Meanwhile, Bruce kills Michael and blackmails Irene, blaming Paul and forcing her to return with him to New York. But Paul does not give up on Irene, and moves to New York with Cesare trying to find her love. They meet each other, but things get complicated when an innocent is arrested accused of murdering the driver.

"History is Made at Night" is a dated melodrama, but extremely romantic. Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer show an amazing chemistry in this delightful romance. The friendship of Cesare and Paul is quite unbelievable in the present days, but gives the funniest moments in this film. Colin Clive performs an obsessive and totally insane villain, with his sick jealousy. But in the end, love wins for the pleasure of the romantic viewers. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A História Começou A Noite" ("The History Has Begun at Night")

Note: On 05 March 2012 I saw this film again.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
This film has been buried because it was not made by a major studio, 10 August 2010

Author: Michael Brooks (mb_cine_films@hotmail.com) from Brisbane, Australia

I saw this on a VHS release here in the 1980's and was one of those films years later I could not forget. How could one forget this memorable title with a equally interesting and unusual combination of love, comedy, drama and disaster that in many other circumstances would simply not work! Boyer and Arthur's romantic moments...pure magic as is Boyer and Leo Carillo's comedic turns. Produced to the tune of over a million dollars (a very generous budget for 1937) independently by Walter Wagner the look of this "A" production certainly reflects this. The deft hand of Borzage could only keep the goings on fluent with the seemingly challenging narrative in a film that easily keeps the viewers attention. To my mind one of the highlights of 30's cinema. I urge anyone interested in this era - see this film!! Available on DVD (mine is a South American copy and OK print quality).

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