Mary Astor

Midnight (1939) is one of those rom-coms that by all rights should make best-of lists. Written by the classic comedy duo of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder plus Edwin Justus Mayer, who penned the satire To Be or Not to Be. Packed with stars, including Oscar winner Claudette Colbert, scene stealer John Barrymore and Mary Astor. Even charming cameos by gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and Monty Woolley.

Given its pedigree, it should be no surprise that the film is hilarious, and director Mitchell Leisen, who also helmed Easy Living and Remember the Night, gives the outstanding script its due.

Why then, did I have to stumble upon it?

It’s true that Don Ameche is no Clark Gable, but he has a blustery, rough-hewn charm of his own. Plus, he’s not the focus. This is a rom-com that leans into the comedy, and the laughs are primarily thanks to Eve Peabody; the breathtakingly confident, unscrupulous heroine (Colbert); and her game sidekick, Georges Flammarion (Barrymore).

Eve has arrived in Paris with only the evening dress on her back thanks to her poor luck at a roulette table. She’s looking for a rich future — or as she puts it, a “tub of butter” — preferably in the arms of a wealthy husband, not those of the sweet taxi driver (Ameche) who picks her up. For reasons of his own, Georges (Barrymore), a man she stumbles into while crashing a party, abets her pursuit of a wealthy, suave player, Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer). Things are looking promising since Picot appreciates the newcomer’s beauty and cool assessment of his character. Only the taxi driver and the limits of her con-artist wiles can foil her plans.

Claudette Colbert would have been at home in the Ocean’s 11 franchise. The breezy assurance with which she pulls off her various lies and schemes as Eve is a joy to behold. Ernst Lubitsch surely erred in limiting his casting of her to a mistress teaching a wife to “jazz up your lingerie” in The Smiling Lieutenant and a put-upon mate in Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife. What a waste to not cast her as the schemer (Miriam Hopkins) in Trouble in Paradise.

The repartee between Georges and Eve when they are collectively spinning tales makes you wonder just how many takes it took before Barrymore and Colbert could keep their faces from crumbling into laughter at these Brackett-Wilder-Mayer lines. And Barrymore as a fairy godmother? His expressions alone crack me up:

I’m not giving anything else away. Just watch it. If you’re anything like me, it won’t be the last time.

This is part of the Classic Movie Blog Association’s Make ’em Laugh blogathon. Check out my peers’ funny takes on their favorite comedies at this link.