----------------------------Original message----------------------------

This message is addressed to various groups I subscribe to.

 

1) I am leaving for the Cannes Festival in a few days. Please do not envy

me. It is incredibly hard work, no sleep, no fun -- but for me a necessary

professional evil.

 

Before I leave I will unsubscribe from the groups, so that the server won't

mess up my programs with thousands (sic) of saved messages. I will

resubscribe upon return.If there is any reason to contact me, please doso

by direct e-mai;

 

If any of my known or unknown friends/colleagues spot something that would

be up my alley, it would be nice if they could save it for me.Thanks in

advance.

 

2) The film FRENCH KISS is getting some discussion in groups. I have not

seen it yet for lack of time, a lower priority --notwithstanding my great

liking of its principals -- as well as from my "en principe" allergy to

movies where a full-blooded (if not bloodied) American pretends to be of

another nationality.

 

Peter Sellers and a few other comics were not only not objectionable but

aided by this special phoniness. However, and in general, Brits with

American accents, Americans with Brit or Scots or French or German or

Russian accents or Chinese (one of the most blatant cases being Paul Muni

and Luisa Rainer doing Chinese peasants in THE GOOD EARTH), are

indigestible.

 

On the other hand there are some superb exceptions to this. As an example,

I am posting below my combined notes (plot-telling) and capsule review on a

great movie, MIDNIGHT.

 

Have a good fin de semestre. I hope to reconnect with you soon.

======================================================================

MIDNIGHT (1939) Directed by Mitchell Leisen, written by Billy Wilder and

Charles Brackett. Based on story by Edwin Justus Mayer and Franz Schultz.

Photography: Charles Lang, Jr. Producer,Arthur Hornblow. Cast: Claudette

Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Hedda Hopper, Francis

Lederer.

 

Colbert arrives in Paris in a third class coach from Monte-Carlo, with just

her evening gown on ... and is discovered sleeping by an SNCF  (French

National Railways) man. She is Eve Peabody, an American adventurer who was

paid off by the mother of a pretender, went to Monte-Carlo and lost all her

money. She meets Hungarian Tibor Czerny (Ameche) a happy cab driver. In the

rain, he makes the rounds of nightclubs so that she can audition. To no

avail.

 

He takes her for a drink and a dance, they talk. He offers her the key to

his place but she runs away. She is open about being as fortune hunter,

while he is a moral individualist, satisfied with little, enjoying life.

 

Because of her dress, in the rain she gets mistaken by a doorman for a

guest at socialite Hedda Hopper's party, which she crashes with a

pawn-ticket in lieu of invitation. (A real noblewoman gets evicted as the

crasher. It gets even funnier later when the hostess announces she had

bounced the "fake" who claimed to have been of nobility)

 

Eve sits next to guest John Barrymore (Mr. Flammarion) who, in superb

pantomime and silent mimicry, observes her body language and her removing a

shoe. The singer at the party is bad, as is the song. Both are very well

chosen for comic effect and to imply Barrymore's boredom.

 

Barrymore observes Eve, guesses who she is. When she gets roped into a

bridge game, her partner Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer), the scion of a

poor-quality but fast-selling champagne family (as per Mr. Flammarion) ,

falls for her immediately, neglecting his other love, Madame Flammarion

(Mary Astor), Barrymore's wife.

 

Canny Barrymore makes Eve come up with a name. She becomes the Baroness

Czerny. He knows for sure that she is a fake as she gives wrong replies to

questions.  He: "The Budapest subway is finished yet?" She: "They're still

working on it, Some streets are still torn up." The answer is that it was

the first subway ever built anywhere, and in the 19th century.

 

Then he slips money into Colbert's handbag , where he sees a pawn ticket.

Lederer takes her home, to the Ritz no less, while Colbert panics.

Barrymore has phoned ahead, reserved a suite, sends her "her luggage" the

next morning, full of luxurious clothes.

 

He proposes a deal:  snare Lederer totally, so that he (Barrymore) can keep

wife Mary Astor whom he loves. Colbert, invited by Barrymore,  goes to his

chateau for a dance and week-end. Astor, suspicious, has her friend

Marcel, the super socialite, blase and gossipy (Rex O'Malley) track down

Eve.

 

He is about to expose her, having found a group photo of chorus girls, with

Colbert quite visible in it. But in meantime, cabby Tibor has mobilized

2,000 Parisian taxi-drivers, lured by te prospect of winning a at 5 francs

a head, to find Eve. This is done. Tibor shows up as Baron Czerny and saves

the day, but since he's in love with Eve, he complicates matters by

threatening her with revelations .

 

At breakfast the next day, the pair go through a charade. Tibor wants  them

to leave because, through a phoney telegram, their imaginary little

daughter is sick in Budapest . Colbert and Barrymore ( he makes

funny"Da-da" sounds on the extension) handle this, but then it turns out

that the outside phone had been dead for days and only the house phone

worked.

 

Eve improvises a story of madness in her "husband"'s family, which works

when Ameche shows up again in his cabby's outfit and exposes the deception.

 

 

They do not believe him.  So the pair end  up  by trying to "divorce,"

appearing before irascible, impatient judge Monty Woolley who scolds them:

"this is France, this is not the city of Nero, Nebraska." (for Reno,

Nevada).

 

They reconcile and now will get really married.

 

A superbly cast, exceptionally clever, entertaining and appealing light

comedy, "Midnight" has lovely, witty lines, a full range of comedic devices

from farce to drawing-room, marital mix-ups, clever situations rather than

mere touches, madcap effects, excellent performances by all, stylish

direction by Leisen.

 

Barrymore is magnificent as a superb ham and a seasoned eye-roller. With

three poor films, plus one fairly good one, to go, this is indisputably the

Great Profile's last great screen appearance.

 

Colbert has always been a consumate comedienne. Add Ameche's natural charm

at its zenith, and you get a terrific team, outstanding in both duo, trio,

and ensemble playing.

 

You forget that these miscellaneous French and Hungarians are actually all

Americans, except for the less authentic, Czech-born Lederer whose accent

is foreign but quite un-Gallic. Many in the supporting cast however, cab

drivers, hotel baggage handlers, etc. are genuinely French. So are several

of the inserted sets.

 

Mitchell Leisen had a flair for flippant fun, and though less known than

the major comedy directors, he should be ranked among Hollywood's greats.

 

This was emigre Billy Wilder's second of many collaborations with Charles

Brackett, followed that same year by Ernst Lubitsch's classic "Ninotchka"

with Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas and other wonderfully inexact "Russians"

and "Frenchmen." Soon after came the 1940, rather neglected gem by Mitchell

Leisen, "Arise My Love," with Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland. What a

staggering output!  (Edwin Jahiel)