I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

That Midnight Kiss is a good, solid feature film debut for Lanza, though he went on to do better afterwards. Lanza and classical music/opera fans will find much to love, as an overall film it's good, solid fun but didn't bowl me over.Lanza is the best thing about That Midnight Kiss. One wishes that he had more to sing and that the studio could have been a little bolder with some of the song choices(understandable though because it was a debut, and he was very young at the time, and they didn't want to tax him too early), but all the songs in the film suit him brilliantly, especially They Didn't Believe Me and Una Furtiva Lagrima(he does quite well too with Celeste Aida). He also sounds sensational, one of the loveliest and most distinctive of all tenor voices, singing with warmth, emotion and generous style, and while inexperience(again understandably) occasionally shows, his feature film debut is dashing and truly charming.Kathryn Grayson radiates on screen and sings like an angel, there was the worry that Caro Nome was too big for her but she manages the colouratura well. After hearing mixed opinions on Lanza and Grayson's chemistry, I'm of the opinion that they have a good natural chemistry together. Ethel Barrymore brings incandescent class to her role, looking positively regal and giving her dialogue a witty edge and classy delivery. Keenan Wynn is a lot of fun and Jules Munshin is even funnier. Thomas Gomez fares the best in the comedy department, this said, the best of his comic timing is hilarious. That Midnight Kiss also looks great, with colourful costumes and sets and glowing photography.The other great thing about That Midnight Kiss is the music and songs. There are some operatic favourites here, for soprano and tenor, and they're still fabulous, and They Didn't Believe Me is the highlight of the film. Love is Music is a little sappy though, not the melody seeing as it is based on one of Tchaikovsky's most beautiful melodies but the rather cloying lyric writing. One mustn't also forget about Jose Iturbi, who gets the opportunity to play piano pieces by Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Chopin and does so simply thrillingly, the performance of the Chopin Revolutionary Etude comes off particularly well. The film is also efficiently paced, more than competently directed and has a mostly winning script with a lot of heart and genuinely funny humour, if occasionally laying it a little thick with the schmaltz and once or twice the comedy is ever so slightly overplayed.Coming off the least well is the story. It's not a disaster as it knows what tone it wanted to be, light and fun, and sticks to it without jumping around or changing tone discordantly. It is however as thin as a wafer, which is true of a lot of MGM musicals at this time, and does feel at times on the too silly and too frothy side, you can also painfully and correctly predict what is going to happen next.All in all, a good feature film debut for Lanza, who along with the music is the film's selling point. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This is actually a very charming and light-hearted musical about a young opera singer hopeful (Kathryn Grayson) that discovers a truck driver (Mario Lanza) singing opera in her wealthy grandmother's living room and suggests he take over as the leading man in her granny's new opera company. You see, Grayson can't hide the giggles she gets when singing a duet with the chunky Thomas Gomez, an opera star she admires professionally but can't see as romantic either on stage or off. She predictably falls in love with Lanza but a misunderstanding with the secretary at the truck company he works at leads her to think he's already engaged. No amount of midnight serenading or playful interference from grandma Ethel Barrymore can fix it, but you know, this is MGM, and there has to be a romantic clinch at the end, right? Of course right! Before being teamed with the less temperamental Howard Keel for three beautiful romantic musicals, the lovely Grayson was paired with Lanza for two films, and here, in his film debut, he shows true star potential. Less portly and diva-like than his future films, Lanza is charming, funny and extremely handsome. They sing a beautiful duet of Jerome Kern's "They Didn't Believe Me" that is the musical highlight of the show. Keenan Wynn is very funny as Lanza's pal who becomes his agent, and Barrymore takes over the roles that Charles Coburn had been playing for years-the octogenarian who feels that if lovers are going to get together, they need a boost from someone who's older and wiser.Marjorie Reynolds is the lovely young lady who accidentally gives Grayson the wrong impression about her and Lanza. The legendary Jose Iturbi plays himself here, and has several piano concertos that are beautifully played and don't become too highbrow. The final opera sequence, sung in English, is a bit silly and not at all realistic to American opera companies, yet lavish and romantic. Lanza and Grayson are a fine pair on-screen although her teamings with Keel are much more famous.

This came at the tail end of the vogue for musicals combining Classical and Popular - in fact it would mark Jose Iturbi's (who seemed to appear in all of them) last appearance in feature films. Usually - Anchor's Aweigh for example - the emphasis tended to be on popular music with perhaps one or two 'classics' thrown in but here the emphasis is definitely on Classical music with only three examples of the 'popular' song plus half a chorus of It's Three O'Clock In The Morning rendered by J Carroll Naish on the dance floor. This is understandable given that co-star Mario Lanza was making his debut and lacked the clout of Sinatra who was able to load Anchors Aweigh with Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn numbers and it is fitting that Iturbi should bow out with such a high percentage of screen time. It's actually a fine cast with support led by Ethel Barrymore who has merely to look regal and toss off dialogue far unworthy of her. Marjorie Reynolds never really broke out on her own but Holiday Inn and this entry look good on her CV. Keenan Wynn and Jules Munshin supply most of the comedy, Thomas Gomez enjoys hamming it up and Arthur Treacher is droll in the background. All in all a pleasant diversion.

For Mario Lanza's first feature film role it wasn't much of an acting stretch for him. He played exactly who he was an opera singing truck-driver from South Philadelphia. Mario would have been 28 at the time That Midnight Kiss came out and that is his approximate age right here.Of course in real life he wasn't discovered by the granddaughter of another real life noted Philadelphian, Ethel Barrymore. As the plot would have it, Kathryn Grayson finds Mario playing on the piano and singing an old Italian song Mama Che Vio Sape. Grayson's got singing talent herself in abundance and when you're from the Philadelphia Main Line you've got a grandmother who's willing to start a production company built around her. Of course to make sure it makes a little money you want a name tenor like Thomas Gomez as opposed to some unknown truck-driver.Kathryn would rather make music with Mario both on and off the stage. The story with a few of the usual Hollywood romantic complications shows how they get to do just that.Mario and Kathryn sang a good collection of classical and popular selections. My favorite recording of Jerome Kern's first great hit song They Didn't Believe Me is from Mario's original cast album of That Midnight Kiss. It's a solo recording, on screen it's done with Grayson and done just as beautifully. MGM made a good choice in including that great song in this film.A good cast of MGM regulars supported Mario and Kathryn that included Keenan Wynn as Lanza's friend and Jules Munshin as the manager of the opera company. Best in the supporting cast however is Thomas Gomez as the egotistical tenor Lanza replaces. Gomez utilizes some seldom tapped comedy talent for this role.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer engineered a very auspicious debut for their new singing discovery in That Midnight Kiss.