Midnight (1934)

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

  (Complete credited 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)

Crime of Passion

MIDNIGHT (Universal, 1934), directed by Chester Erskine, based on a stage play, is reproduced as such in this screen adaptation reportedly filmed and produced in New York City. Headed by Sidney Fox, in one of her final screen roles and last for Universal, she plays Stella, the daughter of Edward Weldon, a jury foreman (O.P. Heggie, the actor most famous today for his role as the blind hermit in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1935) at a trial where a woman, Ethel Saxon (Helen Flint) is accused of murdering a man who betrayed her. Because Weldon is solely responsible for the verdict that convicts Saxon to be later executed at midnight in the electric chair, his personal life changes dramatically. Weldon is not only hounded by reporters after the trial, particularly one named Nolan (Henry Hull, the future WEREWOLF OF London in 1935) who manages to be a guest at his home on the night of Saxon's execution, but he must stand firm with his decision regardless. Stella, who had become acquainted with a man at the trial named Garboni (Humphrey Bogart), becomes interested in him, unaware that he is a gangster, but learns about him later on in the story when she notices that he carries a gun. When Garboni finds himself having to be forced to leave town, Stella wants to go away with him, but he refuses to let her do so, but agrees on meeting her one last time before he goes. On the very night of Ethel Saxon's execution, Stella and Garboni have a farewell meeting in his car. As the switch is being pulled on Saxon, a gun shoots off on Garboni. Returning home to her father with the gun in her hand, Stella admits to shooting Garboni, which puts the old man into a real predicament as to what to do. Should he stand by his own merits and have his own daughter arrested for the crime, or find a way to violate the law and shield her?

Although the story premise is very interesting, especially the subject about a man who feels a murderer must pay the price, only to have his own daughter commit the same kind of crime of passion, MIDNIGHT fails to deliver mainly because of stiff, stagey production with not so convincing dialog. Under better hands of a more capable director, let's say William Wyler for example, MIDNIGHT would have worked as a tense and moving drama. Sidney Fox, who usually gives a capable and satisfactory performance, appears to be the weakest link here, talking somewhat shaky at times for no reason, and not being very convincing when her character is supposed to be very emotional. Occasionally the camera shots moving at different angles helps keep the story going, but not enough to hold one's interest at 73 minutes.

Other capable members of the cast include Margaret Wycherly as Mrs. Weldon; future director Richard Wholf as Stella's brother, Arthur; Lynne Overman and Katherine Wilson as Joe and Ada Biggers, tenants of the Weldon household; Granville Bates, Cora Witherspoon, Henry O'Neill, and Moffatt Johnston as a district attorney who is called to the Weldon home to solve the mystery to Garboni's murder.

To capitalize on the success of future film star Humphrey Bogart, MIDNIGHT was later reissued in 1946 as CALL IT MURDER with Bogey being given star billing. This reissue copy is what's been distributed to video cassette since the early 1980s, but it's the former Blackhawk Video Company of Davenport, Iowa, that distributed the movie on tape with it's original "Midnight" title and credits followed by Bogey's name in the cast where it was originally presented in 1934, with eighth billing.

MIDNIGHT will never be listed in Hollywood's Top Ten Best list, but it's worth a look anyway for being an early screen appearance of future superstar Humphrey Bogart or a rediscovery of Sidney Fox, whose movie career (mostly at Universal) lasted only three years. Fox and Bogart had worked together earlier in THE BAD SISTER (1931), which not only became Fox's movie debut, but the future two-time Academy Award winning actress, Bette Davis.