Official Synopsis:
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)
  
Our Take:
Midnight is very much a Billy Wilder comedy with only one problem: Billy Wilder didn’t direct it.  Wilder wrote the script with writing partner Charles Bracket and it was given to Mitchell Leisen to direct.  The fortuitous result of Leisen’s direction and subsequent butchering of the original script was that after this film, Wilder insisted on directing his own scripts.  Therefore, Mitchell Leisen deserves a big “thank you!” from Wilder fans for being the mid-level studio director that he was.

Midnight is very much a Wilder film, from the inclusion of references to Hungary to his broad swipes at the absurdity of life.  Wilder’s sharp wit is seen in the lines delivered by the excellent lead actress, Claudette Colbert.  Colbert gets the quicker lines and delivers them with Jean Arthur-like dexterity.  There is an abundance of comic gold to be mined as usual in Wilder films in the one-off lines of minor characters, such as a judge who underscores the occasional absurdity of the legal system.  The only downside to the film is the mind-numbingly uninspired direction of Mitchell Leisen.

Universal has released Midnight as part of its latest wave of Cinema Classics.  This is the film’s DVD debut and as always, it is a great thing when older films are released for the first time on DVD as it allows a completely new audience to appreciate and view them.  This single disc release contains the following:

* Exclusive Introduction by Robert Osborne (2 minutes).

* Theatrical Trailer.

Midnight is more enjoyable for the fact that it is the catalyst for Billy Wilder’s career as a director, but it is still an excellent romantic comedy that will leave you yearning to see what was cut out of Wilder and Bracket’s script.  Midnight is a frustrating but familiar must-see film for Wilder enthusiasts.

RECOMMENDED!

Overall Picture:
Movie: B+
DVD:   C+

- Matthew Orlando
Staff Writer