Popular reviews

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★½ 2

  “Midnight” presents the mannered airs of a Lubitsch comedy, but has something... nastier under its façade. 

  It’s no surprise then, to see Billy Wilder’s name listed in the screenplay credits. 

  Director Mitchell Leisen’s film about a gold digging American showgirl in Paris is a tale of con vs con vs The Great Con. The last one, being the highly lampoon-able charade that is the possession of excess wealth. 

  Where Lubitsch always seemed to endow even his cads with a sentimental heart, there is no such mercy from Wilder. Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche are locked in a duel to the lowest denominator. 

  In asking ‘will they or won’t they’ of the two scammers, the urge for them to pair off…

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  Review by Zoë 🐝 ★★★★★ 3

  As the 1930s came to a close, the screwball comedy was still around and going strong. Midnight feels like the perfect transitional film from the screwballs of the 1930s and their preoccupation with exorbitant wealth (My Man Godfrey, If You Could Only Cook) and screwballs of the 1940s, which kept a class-conscious interest (and penchant for sending up the uber-rich) but branched out to feature, for example, anxieties of war (To Be or Not To Be, Hail the Conquering Hero). Again, the throughline is the focus on the ridiculousness of the rich. This focus is highly present in Midnight, which centers on a gold digging American in Paris, Eve Peabody, looking for a wealthy husband so she can enjoy economic…

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  Review by Jonathan White ★★★★ 3

  My first experience a few years ago with Midnight was so wonderful, it somehow has been placed in that special tier of films you can go back to without question when you want an evening of complete enjoyment. Thus was the calling the other night when we were choosing a movie. We wanted something short and marvelous. My wife and I have been navigating some classic screwballs recently with some success, and some failures. Here, we wanted a sure success.

  My first impression on this rewatch is that Midnight simply shouldn’t work. Claudette Colbert’s Eve Peabody is outed as a golddigger in the opening scene. She doesn’t really appear to have a heart of gold under her gold lamé. Don…

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  Review by Christopher Moore ★★★★½

  What an absolute riot Midnight is. The "dada" scene with John Barrymore is surely one of the most comical screwball moments I've witnessed. I never expected I'd ever see Claudette Colbert in a finer screwball comedy than It Happened One Night, but Midnight is, at the very least, right up there with it.

  I'll simply add to the chorus of voices that thinks this is an overlooked classic deserving of more attention. Apparently, Midnight hasn't been the most well-circulated film, so that's probably why it's taken me so long to see it. What a shame, because I can't wait to return to it.

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  Review by nora ★★★★★ 1

  claudette colbert and don ameche are just the loveliest pair!!!! john barrymore pretending to be a toddler making kissy noises over the phone to his “papa” ameche is simply batshit!!!! claudette’s wardrobe is stunning!!!! i loved this sooooo much!!!!!

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  Review by Jillian Michelle ★★★★★ 1

  DON AMECHE IN THAT TIGHT BLACK TURTLENECK.

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  Review by theironcupcake ★★★

  "My dear, you know, it's amazing how little one has to explain to a man in love."
  "Mmhmm. And when he stops being in love?"
  "Well, that's when the alimony'll begin!"

  Always the dream: to be a vision as intoxicating as American showgirl/golddigger Claudette Colbert posing as a baroness in Irene-designed gowns, wooed across Paris by her equally cute choices of temperamental Hungarian taxi driver Don Ameche and debonair French magnate Francis Lederer. I'd rate the overall atmosphere as far more elegant than substantial (though the direction by Mitchell Leisen and screenplay/dialogue by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder do their utmost, I suppose) and Ameche and Colbert don't spend nearly enough time together for a romance (let alone his immediate…

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★½

  Best Wilder/Brackett script of 1939. Perfectly cast with Barrymore on his near ham best. Leisen directs everything with such a playful delight with all the multiple con games played.

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  Review by RetroHound ★★★★ 13

  What an excellent movie! I really enjoyed this one a lot. This is a great screwball comedy, written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. Some say director Mitchell Leisen changed enough of the script that Billy Wilder decided to become a director so no one would mess with his writing any longer. So, for that we can be grateful. But the movie is really funny and witty and very entertaining.

  Claudette Colbert is a gold-digger from the US newly arrived in Paris with only the dress she is wearing. She is picked up by a taxi driver Tibor Czerny (Don Ameche) who falls in love with her. Though various situations, she takes on the name of Dutchess Czerny and John…

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  Review by Thomas Ringdal ★★★★ 4

  So that's what Don Ameche looked like in his younger days! Quite the dashing gentleman.
  All in all a very beautiful and funny cast, highlighted by the eternally great John Barrymore, his facial expressions a delight as always. That face is a treasure. Wish I could grind him up, and sprinkle bits of him onto all films. ALL films.
  This is Mitchell Leisen at the top of his game (he made Remember the Night the following year), and it's got some wonderful shots of the streets of Paris.

  Though I thoroughly enjoy screwballs, I wish they'd ease up on the high society setting, wich happens more often than not. This time, Colbert plays a street smart gal gold-digging her way…

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  Review by phoebe 💫 ★★★★½

  Listen not much gives A Cinderella Story (2004) a run for its money but this does. We are John Barrymore stans first and people second.

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  Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★★½

  Jacques’ family makes a very superior income from a very inferior champagne.

  Welcome to Lie vs Lie

  This is the very definition of a silly movie, but it’s so well written that I just don’t care. It reminds me of something like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but with confused motives.

  I especially love how at various points nearly every character ends up smiling through gritted teeth as the fibs, lies, and fables, ping pong back and forth.

  BONUS POINTS for Don Ameche’s fabulous voice, which I could listen to all day.

  
  Don’t forget every Cinderella has her midnight.

  Cinematic Time Capsule - 1939 Ranked