Google Ads
Login | Sign Up

Midnight Overview:

Midnight (1939) was a Comedy - Romance Film directed by Mitchell Leisen and produced by William LeBaron and Arthur Hornblow Jr..

Midnight was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2013.

Midnight BlogHub Articles:

Silents Are Golden: A Closer Look At “London After Midnight” (1927)

A Closer Look At “London After Midnight” (1927) It’s probably the most famous, most sought-after lost silent film of all time: London After Midnight (1927), starring the screen legend Lon Chaney and directed by the macabre-minded Tod Browning. Despite constant attempts to track it d... Read full article


Watching 1939: Midnight (1939)

In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, tha... Read full article


Midnight Special (2016): A Story of Parenthood

“These are words of the Lord…or the federal government.” Derek Webb has a song called “Spirit.” For anyone with a religious upbringing, it might conjure up the “Holy Ghost” — the Helper meant to fill up Christian faithful as they worship God in their s... Read full article


Watching 1939: Midnight Shadow (1939)

In 2011, I announced I was trying to see every film released in 1939. This new series chronicles films released in 1939 as I watch them. As we start out this blog feature, this section may become more concrete as I search for a common thread that runs throughout each film of the year. Right now, th... Read full article


Chimes at Midnight (1965, Orson Welles)

Chimes at Midnight opens with Orson Welles and Alan Webb, both aged men in the Medieval Ages, bumbling (probably at least somewhat drunkenly) in for the night; they sit at a fire and gently reminisce about their youth. The scene gives a first look at screenwriter, director, star Welles in all his gi... Read full article


See More Midnight Articles

Midnight Quotes:

Jacques Picot: You're wonderful.
Eve Peabody: You're magnificent.
Helene Flammarion: You're talking across the board.

Jacques Picot: I'm terribly sorry. It's difficult to concentrate on cards... sometimes.
Eve Peabody: [Referring to Jacques' dislike of Helene's feathered hat] Naturally, when you're worrying about the future of the ostrich plume.
Helene Flammarion: I don't think that's very funny.
Jacques Picot: I do.
Eve Peabody: Well, thanks.

Eve Peabody: Well. So this, as they say, is Paris, huh?
Train guard: Yes, madame.
Eve Peabody: Well, from here it looks an awful lot like a rainy night in Kokomo, Indiana.

Marcel: Madame? A word with you.
Eve Peabody: With me?
Marcel: Yes, with you.
Eve Peabody: I thought so. Well, all right, let's get it over with.

Eve Peabody: From the moment you looked at me, I had an idea you had an idea.
See More Quotes from Midnight
Midnight Facts
When Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett turned in their script, the studio liked it, but felt it needed some work. The writers they hired to rewrite the script were: Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. The studio sent them their own script to rewrite without knowing it. Wilder and Brackett simply retyped their original script and the studio loved the "rewrites" so much, they produced it with no further "changes".

When John Barrymore was cast, it was well known that his alcoholism would necessitate some accommodation. This accounted for the presence in the cast of his young wife, Elaine Barrie. When he could not remember some of his lines, they were written out on blackboards just off camera, and both his irascibility and sense of humor were well in evidence. At one point one of the female assistants on the set went into the ladies room, only to be confronted with the sight of Barrymore, his back turned, relieving himself. "You can't be here," she protested, "it's just for ladies." He turned around and retorted, "So's this!"

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

On Thursday, September 28, 1939, Robert L. Buckner filed a plagiarism suit demanding an injunction against exhibition of the film, "Midnight," and an accounting and damages, in the U.S. Federal Court, against Paramount Pictures, Inc. and Charles Beahan. Plaintiff (Buckner)claims that in 1933 he and Beahan wrote a play entitled, "Dearly Beloved," and delivered a manuscript to Paramount. The complaint charges Paramount with infringing the play in the picture, "Midnight," and states that Beahan is named a defendant because he refuses to join the suit as a plaintiff.

After Wilder and Brackett fought with director Mitchell Leisen to make sure as much of their work made on the screen as possible, Wilder was convinced he had to direct the scripts they wrote and Brackett was convinced he had to produce.

See More Facts about Midnight >>