Midnight Episode (1950) User Reviews

Holloway Plays It Big

[boblipton · 7/10 · 27 January 2019]

Stanley Holloway is a busker. He finds a wallet with two hundred pounds and some papers in the street, he consults with Leslie Dwyer. Because it would be suspicious if he turned up with that much money, he hides the wallet, puts the money in an envelope -- less twenty quid for Dwyer's consultation -- and turns it in to the police. He expects the sum will be untraceable and he will keep what is for him a fortune. However, when he uses the information in the wallet to visit Natasha Parry, whose father has turned up dead, he begins to attract attention: not only from the police, but from the murderer.

It's directed by Gordon Parry from a Simenon novel. Besides being Natasha Parry's, Mr. Parry was a former actor who rose to directing second features in the 1940s. None of them were particularly distinguished, but this one has Holloway playing a down-at-his-heels classical actor. He growls, he speaks in orotund tones, he schemes, and he keeps getting knocked on the head and sent to hospital. Holloway plays it big, and he's a delight.

Never underestimate a little bit of bloomin' luck. It may not be all that lucky.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 12 June 2020]

For American audiences, this British mystery will be of interest simply by the leading performance of "My Fair Lady's" Stanley Holloway, playing a "busker" (street entertainer) who finds a wallet, an unconscious man in a car, and ends up in grave danger because of his involvement when that man shows up dead. Turning the wallet over to the police, he hopes to be able to collect it in a short. Of time if nobody claims it, but ends up with the murderer on his Trail. Then there's the murdered man's daughter (Natasha Perry) who is kind to him, burning his gratitude because apparently nobody loves a busker but their audience.

Some of the classic British lingo may go over the head of American audiences, so it's handy to keep a dictionary nearby, preferably an intranet dictionary. This is very interesting for its technical superiority with great settings and editing, interesting character performances, particularly by Wilfred Hyde-White (whom Holloway would later be reunited with) and Sebastian Cabot. It is a suspenseful Tale well, somewhat slow-moving in spots, but discriminating audiences will find themselves engaged if they pay full attention and pick up on the obscure details that might pass over their heads otherwise.

Not one of Stanley's Best

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 7 August 2017]

A totally forgotten film starring Stanley Holloway.He plays a busker who finds a dead body and a wallet containing £500.He hands the money to the police but keeps the wallet.However what he doesn't know is that there is something in the wallet which incriminate the killer.The killer knows this and makes a number of efforts to retrieve the item.A fairly typical Simenon plot.Not particularly interesting.