What makes it different from others?

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Blistering performances.

Midnight (1939) is an excellent film that showcases the talents of all of its stars: a very sassy and glamorous Claudette Colbert, a very charming and self-assured Don Ameche, the lovely Mary Astor, a small but perfectly hilarious part by Monty Woolley, and John Barrymore in what is probably my favorite role of his. Midnight is pure romantic comedy. It's not an over-the-top screwball, but it does lean that way particularly at the château. The chemistry between Ameche and Colbert is excellent. Despite her plans to keep away, his determination never wavers, although his methods do.My only disappointment is that it's a few minutes too short. The time flies and it's over in just over 90 minutes. These characters are so much fun to watch, a full 2 hours would have been okay by me. Regardless, I've seen it several times now, and with each viewing it grows on me. I also enjoy noticing the little details that add to the comedy. I highly recommend Midnight to any classic film lover. 8/10

With Don Ameche borrowed from 20th Century Fox and John Barrymore finished with his contract at MGM, the two of them teamed with Claudette Colbert to make Midnight where Colbert plays a chorus girl stranded in Paris. When Don Ameche finds her and takes her in, she's wearing a newspaper for a hat.She could have all her basic needs met with Ameche who's head over heels for her, but Claudette wants more out of life. Enter John Barrymore who would like to have her masquerade as a baroness, to ward off another goldigger of the male kind in Francis Lederer who has been sniffing around Mary Astor who is Barrymore's wife.Colbert pulls it off beautifully, maybe she'll meet a really rich candidate for a husband. Lederer is sniffing all right to Astor's jealousy, but Ameche is on the scent too. He's going to find that woman who came and went out of his life so quickly. And Barrymore, the sly rogue, is presiding over it all like an indulgent grandpa.When you have a director like Mitchell Leisen and such skilled players in comedy as Ameche and Colbert in the lead, the result can't be anything else, but pure entertainment. Barrymore is also grand in the last part he would have in an A budget film.Down in the supporting cast take careful note of Monty Woolley as a judge, a man well versed in the divorce laws of France and who brooks no nonsense in his court. Best scene in the film is Ameche with the help of several Parisian cab drivers getting the hotel maitre'd to tell where Colbert left for. That has to be seen, no description will do.Unfortunately Midnight is not the kind of screen comedy made any more, so see it when broadcast.

If "Midnight" as a title seems puzzling, think Cinderella. Except this time our Cinderella is a gold digger with a self-defeating habit of falling for poor taxi drivers. She's also one of the foxiest, funniest and sexiest young ladies in Paris. No staying at home to sweep out the hearth for her. Midnight, released in 1939, was one of the last of the great romantic screwball comedies that Hollywood had learned how to make during the Thirties. Somehow, it was nearly forgotten while others were treasured. With DVD, here's our chance to see again just how good it is, thanks to Claudette Colbert as the ambitious Eve Peabody; Don Ameche as the cab-driving Tibor Czerny; John Barrymore as the rich Georges Flammarion, a somewhat dissipated fairy godfather; Mary Astor as his wife, Helene; and with Mitchell Leisen directing and Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder writing the screenplay. If you're able to watch this movie without smiling, you must have injected too much Botox around your lips. Eve arrives in Paris by train with only the gold lame gown she's wearing and a lonely franc in her purse. She's lost all her money and luggage gambling, hoping to make enough to land a rich daddy. Before long Tibor is driving her around in the rainy night in his taxi while she tries to find a nightclub job singing. No luck. Tibor is obviously smitten, but Eve, who likes him more and more, is determined to get ahead in life. She leaves Tibor putting gas in the taxi and runs off into the rain. She winds up at an exclusive salon filled with wealthy patrons being cultured with classical music. And there she meets the rich Georges Flammarion, whose wife, Helene, is being wooed by the rich Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer). Flammarion, no fool, comes to Eve's assistance when awkward questions are about to be asked, and installs her at the Ritz. He then proposes. Not marriage, but an arrangement where Eve will entice Jacques away from Helene, whom George, it turns out, actually loves. Now we're in elegant mansion country, where there are exquisitely dressed guests doing the conga, where Eve is pretending to be the Baroness Czerny (she had to come up with a name, and Tibor's was handy), where she has Jacques enticed and where suddenly Tibor shows up in white tail and tails pretending to be Baron Czerny, where imaginary children have measles, where there can be a wedding gift of a single roller skate covered with Thousand Island dressing, where mix-ups collide with complications, and where Georges must come to the rescue with flawless double takes. We wind things up in a divorce court with a kiss and an embrace, of course, but only after so many really clever fibs and ingenious set-ups that Brackett and Wilder must have used a chart to keep things clear. Everything works in this sophisticated romantic comedy, and that includes the dialogue by Brackett and Wilder. The movie keeps rushing and fizzing ahead. Colbert dominates but all are at their best (even Ameche, who doesn't come to mind as the first person to cast in a sophisticated comedy). Colbert was just at the cusp of moving into films more suitable to her age (she was 37). In four years she'd be playing the teenage Shirley Temple's mother. She never lost that sexy, clever, resourceful aura of hers, and it's in full force here. To see what I mean, just watch her as Franzi in The Smiling Lieutenant opposite Maurice Chevalier and as Ellie in It Happened One Night. She gives wondrous charm to Eve's ability to come up with plausible alternatives to awkward realities. Barrymore makes a dissipated fairy godfather, but with so much sly charm it's a pleasure to observe his rescues of Eve. Barrymore knows what he's doing, even if by now he had to read his lines from giant cue cards. If you like Hollywood screwball comedies, I think you'll find Midnight is one of the best.

This 1939 version of "Midnight" does not seem to be related to any of the other "Midnights" made in 1917, 1934, 1982, 1989, 2006. Claudette Colbert is the dolled up Eve Peabody, broke and looking for work in the rain. Along comes ever-so-friendly cab driver Tibor Czerny (Don Ameche), who goes out of this way to drive her around and help her find work. Also in here are John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Hedda Hopper, and Monty Woolley, all biggies in Hollywood. Note the cast list, which includes William Hopper, Hedda's son, as a party guest. Also Joyce Mathews, who was married to Milton Berle (twice !) In usual Billy Wilder style, there are elements of a chase, some moments of serious plot, and a whole lot of silly pratfalls that mostly end in good luck. When Eve sneaks into an evening party, pretending to be someone else, she meets up with Georges Flammarion (Barrymore) , who has a scheme going of his own, and he needs Eve's assistance. Rumor has it Barbara Stanwyck was originally going to star in this, and there are definitely similarities to Lady Eve, which would be released two years after Midnight by Preston Sturgess. Midnight also has a similar plot to The Bride Wore Red from 1937, where Joan Crawford sneaks into a weekend getaway with the uppercrust, but one of her own "friends" wants to save her before its too late. In our story, we keep flashing over to the cabbie Czerny (Ameche) who is still trying to track down Eve.... Who will she end up with, and will she be exposed as the fraud she is ? Fun, fast script, and it keeps the viewer enthralled. Colbert plays Eve just innocent enough to make us want her to succeed, even though she is doing some underhanded things. Fun to watch!