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Midnight (Universal Cinema Classics)
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.
EAN: 0025193312921
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Item Dimensions: 100
Label: Universal Studios
Languages: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 MonoEnglish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled),
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
MPN: 61033129
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 22, 2008
Running Time: 94 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1939
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Editorial Review:
Although Hollywood's golden year of 1939 is best remembered for Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, it was also a banner year for sophisticated screen comedy, and Mitchell Leisen's Midnight is a deliciously prime example. Screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett were in peak form when they concocted this smooth confection about Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert), an American showgirl in Paris who is out of work, money, and luck when a handsome cabbie (Don Ameche) offers to drive her around the City of Light to search for employment as a nightclub chanteuse. Nobody's hiring, but Eve has a better plan: posing as a Hungarian countess, she smuggles her way into Parisian high society and suddenly finds herself in the lap of luxury, commissioned by a wealthy aristocrat (John Barrymore) to seduce a French playboy (Francis Lederer) away from Barrymore's not-so-loyal wife (Mary Astor). While Eve is living it up at the Ritz Hotel and enjoying trips to Versailles, Ameche's on a mission to find her and declare his true love.
Class distinction, infidelity, false identity... these were daring ingredients for a 1939 comedy, and Midnight (a casebook display of Paramount's shimmering studio style of the '30s) is as fresh today as it was when first released. The silky perfection of the Wilder-Brackett screenplay is expertly served by Leisen (a director who deserves ranking with Ernst Lubitsch and Preston Sturges), and Colbert is merely the brightest star in a flawless cast of screwball veterans. Poking fun at the elite was a Wilder-Brackett specialty, and Barrymore is particularly savvy to the material, giving a performance that's simultaneously sly, desperate, and hilariously inspired. The plot is so elegantly executed that Midnight makes most comedies of later decades look pale in comparison. Gone are the days, it seems, when sophistication, wit, and good taste were an integral part of Hollywood comedy. Midnight offers all of those qualities in abundance, making it a perfect antidote to the crudeness that dominates mainstream comedy at the turn of the millennium. --Jeff Shannon
Academy Award® winners* Claudette Colbert Don Ameche and John Barrymore light up the screen in Midnight - one of the best romantic comedies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The fun begins when a penniless showgirl (Colbert) impersonates a Hungarian countess and with the help of an aristocrat (Barrymore) quickly adapts to her new lifestyle. But can she stop herself from falling in love with yet another poor man (Ameche)? Written by Academy Award® winners** Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett Midnight has been hailed as "just about the best light comedy ever caught by the camera!" (Motion Picture Daily)System Requirements:Running Time: 95 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/SCREWBALL COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 025193312921 Manufacturer No: 61033129
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Another Classic Screwball Comedy
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Mitchell Leisen directed MIDNIGHT (1939), another delightful screwball comedy of "misunderstandings," written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder.
Set in Paris, Claudette Colbert stars as a penniless showgirl who pretends to be a Hungarian countess in order to better her lifestyle. She has the financial help of aristocrat John Barrymore, who wants her to ... Read More
Rating: - One of the Greatest Screwball Comedies!
This movie is little known compared to It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby and several other films. I can't understate how great this comedy is. I first saw it several years ago at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY which is a classic movie theatre attached to the George Eastman House. I was in high school and loved screwball comedies. I had never heard of this one though. I laughed until my sides hurt and totally fell in love with John Barrymore and Don Ameche. Claudette Colbert was already ... Read More
Rating: - "Midnightly Madness"
Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche sizzle in another production which displays Colbert's genius as a commedienne. She goes smoothly from one ridiculous situation to another in her attempts to take on the persona of a baroness, while in actuality she is a down and out "American in Paris." There is a reason for her facade and the story gets juicier and juicier. This classic of the Thirties is superior to most other comedies and a model of what a good romantic comedy should be. Take heed Hollywood.
Rating: - Comedy of Manners Jumps Curve & Goes Screwball Masterpiece
Holy Cow! Here's a screwball comedy that's goes well beyond the curve of all others. Watching Midnight is like riding up a rainbow; it takes every opportunity to go over the top, then, with each outrageously inventive plot turn made more devilishly elegant than the previous, goes ten paces further. My jaw dropped. Pure shimmering wit and droll pleasures await, along with a head turning postmodern twist on the 'comedy of remarriage' that's eons ahead of its time. One of the most divine pieces of entertainment ... Read More
Rating: - A true classic!
This is classic screwball comedy at its best. Great cast, entertaining plot with a few unexpected twists and turns, and snappy dialogue. It's just plain fun to watch.
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