Midnight (1939) Blu-ray (Criterion Collection)

[MifuneFan]

Criterion will be releasing the American Screwball comedy Midnight (1939) on Blu-ray in June!

Midnight (1939) Blu-ray

https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New audio commentary featuring author and film critic Michael Koresky
• New program featuring audio excerpts of a 1969 interview with director Mitchell Leisen
• Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1940
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film critic David Cairns

New cover by Abigail Giuseppe

Screwball comedy doesn’t get any more effortlessly elegant and gleefully irreverent than this roulette wheel of romantic deception, gleaming with cunning wit and Continental élan. A couture-clad Claudette Colbert is divine as a penniless American showgirl who crashes Parisian high society by posing as a wealthy Hungarian baroness—but both a scheming nobleman (John Barrymore) and a smitten taxi driver (Don Ameche) are soon on to her game. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s sophisticated script—a typically subversive blend of fairy-tale escapism and caustic social observation—and the pitch-perfect direction of master craftsman Mitchell Leisen yield a topsy-turvy Cinderella story with a cynical bite.

Midnight (1939) Trailer HD | Claudette Colbert | Don Ameche | John Barrymore - YouTube

[AlanClarke]

I just watched this a few days ago. It's really wonderful. I recommend going into it without reading the plot synopsis because it plays out almost like a David Mamet con movie. Every scene in the first half seems to twist the plot into a new direction and it eventually winds up in such a different place than I thought it would. The second half is more conventional and predictable but no less hilarious. Easily one of my favourite screwball comedies.

[latehong]

Glad to see Mitchell Leisen get some love in recent years. My sentiment on this film is pretty much the same with AlanClarke. The third act was a bit--just a tiny little bit--letdown only because the first and second acts were so brilliantly screwy. AlanClarke compared it to a David Mamet movie, and I thought of Alfred Hitchcock. If there is such a thing as a Hitchcockian screwball comedy, this is it. In some scenes, it almost predicts NOTORIOUS or NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

[AlanClarke]

Originally Posted by latehong

Glad to see Mitchell Leisen get some love in recent years. My sentiment on this film is pretty much the same with AlanClarke. The third act was a bit--just a tiny little bit--letdown only because the first and second acts were so brilliantly screwy. AlanClarke compared it to a David Mamet movie, and I thought of Alfred Hitchcock. If there is such a thing as a Hitchcockian screwball comedy, this is it. In some scenes, it almost predicts NOTORIOUS or NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

Mitchell Leisen is one of the most underappreciated American directors from the studio era. Of course, Remember the Night is great, but so are Midnight and No Man of Her Own. For ages, all I knew about him was that Billy Wilder hated his guts but, of all the films Wilder wrote for other directors, Hold Back the Dawn feels the most like a classic Wilder film. OK, Leisen was no "auteur" but he has a hell of a good filmography.

[octobercountry]

Honestly, I'm not sure I've ever actually heard of director Mitchell Leisen, but now I'm quite curious to see this film, especially after coming across this article:

http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/20...filmmaker.html

[speedracer5]

Originally Posted by AlanClarke

Mitchell Leisen is one of the most underappreciated American directors from the studio era. Of course, Remember the Night is great, but so are Midnight and No Man of Her Own. For ages, all I knew about him was that Billy Wilder hated his guts but, of all the films Wilder wrote for other directors, Hold Back the Dawn feels the most like a classic Wilder film. OK, Leisen was no "auteur" but he has a hell of a good filmography.

Leisen is one of my favorite Classic Hollywood directors. Aside from the films you mentioned, I also love Hands Across the Table with Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray, Easy Living with Jean Arthur and Ray Milland, The Lady is Willing with Marlene Dietrich and Fred MacMurray, and No Time for Love with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.

[filmlover22]

If you are interested in Leisen, then I would highly recommend you get Kino's Golden Earring with Milland and Dietrich. Not only is it a fun film, but David Del Valle's commentary is practically a mini-bio/documentary on Leisen - his life and career. I found it absolutely fascinating.