Unveiling at midnight

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Movie
German title Unveiling at midnight
Original title Midnight
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1939
length 92 minutes
Rod
Director Mitchell Leisen
script Charles Brackett ,
Billy Wilder ,
Franz Schulz (template)
production Arthur Hornblow, Jr. for Paramount Pictures
music Frederick Hollander
camera Charles Lang
cut Doane Harrison
occupation
synchronization

Midnight Reveal (Original Title: Midnight ) is a screwball comedy starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche and directed by Mitchell Leisen from 1939.

action

Eve Peabody, a showgirl from America, ends up completely burned down in Paris one evening with nothing more than her evening dress. Chance brings her together with the friendly taxi driver Tibor Czerny. While driving through the city, Tibor falls in love with Eve, who, however, is looking for engagements and a rich husband. Tibor offers her to spend the night with him while he completes his night shift. Nevertheless, Eve runs away and ends up at a somewhat stiff gala event, where she pretends to be "Baroness Czerny" and meets the eccentric millionaire Georges Flammarion. He offers Eve a substantial sum if she manages to take his unfaithful wife Helene from her lover, the city-famous gigolo Jacques Picot. Georges gives Eve the money she needs and establishes her in a luxurious hotel apartment in the Ritz.

In fact, Picot immediately feels drawn to the fake Baroness, much to the annoyance of Helene, who, together with her good friend Marcel, is investigating the origins of Baroness Czerny. The plan to seduce Jacque Picot is to be carried out over a weekend at the castle of the Flammarions. In the meantime, Tibor, who couldn't forget Eve, was able to get in touch with her again. Another problem is Helene, who has since tracked down a photo of Eve as a showgirl. Just as Helene wants to expose Eve as a cheat in front of the assembled guests, Tibor appears completely surprising at the festival, which Eve presents as Baron Czerny with presence of mind. When Georges welcomes the baron as an old friend, Eve's credibility as a baroness is restored.

Tibor confesses to Eve that he loves her and wants to marry her, but she still prefers the rich Jacques. Then Tibor appears at breakfast in his uniform as a taxi driver and tries to expose Eve as a cheater. But shortly beforehand, the supposed Baroness Czerny had reported to the guests that her husband suffered from regular delusions, for example being a taxi driver, which is why Tibor's claim is not believed. The resulting misunderstandings lead Jacques to hold Eve's hand. At a court hearing, Tibor and Eve are said to be divorced, but Tibor's deliberately crazy behavior in court prevents this, as divorce from mentally ill people is illegal in France. Eve also realizes how much she really loves Tibor and now really wants to marry him.

background

Claudette Colbert had risen to the Paramount's biggest box office star since 1934 , largely thanks to numerous appearances in romantic comedies. In this respect, it was a stroke of luck for Mitchell Leisen when Colbert finally took on the lead role in Midnight after the originally planned Barbara Stanwyck was not available in time for shooting. The studio increased the production budget to over $ 1 million and Leisen was able to sign some of Hollywood's best supporting actors . The production history of Midnight itself extended until February 1937, when Marlene Dietrich was initially announced as the leading actress and Fritz Lang as the director. Several changes eventually resulted in Mitchell Leisen taking over the direction. He had been a recognized expert on romantic comedies since the success of My Life in Luxury with Jean Arthur, and he got along very well with Claudette Colbert. Filming wasn't exactly easy, though. For one thing, one problem was masking Mary Astor's advancing pregnancy. Therefore, the actress is rarely seen in the long shot, but mostly her upper body appears, while the lower abdomen remains hidden behind props. In addition, in some scenes Astor wears very loose dresses or loose-fitting coats.

After decades of alcohol abuse, John Barrymore had massive problems keeping his dialogues, which is why Leisen had to use so-called cue cards . The text was written on large cardboard discs and held up outside the camera area in front of the actor so that he only had to read the text. Then there was the well-known neurosis of Claudette Colbert, who insisted on only having the left half of her face recorded in profile. All sets had to take this into account and designed accordingly. At the same time, Don Ameche was working on the biographical Love and Life of telephone maker A. Bell at 20th Century Fox , so Leisen had to work two shifts: first he recorded all scenes without Ameche, and then, when Ameche was available, the remaining recordings to catch up.

The biggest problems, however, were between Mitchell Leisen and screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett . The two authors were convinced that with their second joint script they had provided a perfect template that could be filmed without any further changes. Mitchell Leisen disagreed, however, and kept tinkering with the design. Until the end of his life, Billy Wilder never ceased to accuse Quiet of this practice.

“He had absolutely no idea how the scene was set up. And it was completely indifferent to him. All he did was tweaking the script and our script was almost perfect! "

Leisen's writing around on Wilder's scripts for Midnight and the two years later The Golden Gate were a main reason for Wilder to become a Hollywood director himself from 1942 in order to prevent changes to his scripts. The film was a great financial success with audiences and press. The studio shot a remake in 1946 under the title Masquerade in Mexico with Dorothy Lamour in the role of Colbert and Ann Dvorak as Helene.

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created in the 1970s by Berlin Synchron based on the dialogue script and dubbing direction by Horst Balzer .

role actor German Dubbing voice
Eve Peabody / Baroness Czerny Claudette Colbert Renate Küster
Tibor Czerny / Baron Czerny Don Ameche Joachim Kemmer
Georges Flammarion John Barrymore Leo Bardischewski
Jacques Picot Francis Lederer Norbert Langer
Helene Flammarion Mary Astor Marianne Gross
Stephanie, organizer of the gala Hedda Hopper Dagmar Altrichter
Marcel Renaud Rex O'Malley Norbert Gescher
Simon, saleswoman in the fashion store Elaine Barrie Almut Eggert
Judge Monty Woolley Martin Hirthe

Reviews

The New York Times found the film was:

“[...] one of the most turbulent, cheerful, funny and frivolous comedies in a long time. Mitchell Leisen's direction is wonderfully reminiscent of Lubitsch. The cast [..] is one of the best ever. [..] Of course, Miss Colbert makes the greatest contribution to success. She has a superb style of playing comedy [...] "

The lexicon of international film called the film one:

"[E] Legant, multi-layered comedy of errors and confusions with ironic swipes at bourgeois society."

Awards

2013: Entry into the National Film Registry

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ He didn't know sh-t about construction. And he didn't care. All he did was he f-cked up the script and our scripts were damn near perfection!
  2. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Unveiling at midnight. Retrieved February 27, 2018 .
  3. ^ Frank S. Nugent: THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Midnight,' With Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert, Strikes a Seasonal High in Comedy at the Paramount - 'Within the Law' at the Criterion Theater . In: The New York Times . April 6, 1939 (English, online [accessed on March 13, 2017]): “[...] one of the liveliest, gayest, wittiest and naughtiest comedies of a long hard season. Its direction, by Mitchell Leisen, is strikingly reminiscent of that of the old Lubitsch. Its cast [..] is in the best of spirits. [..] Most of the credit, of course, belongs to Miss Colbert. She has superb command of the comic style [...]. "
  4. ↑ Unveiling at midnight. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 13, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used