Midnight (1939): An American showgirl in Paris
1939 • Mitchell Leisen • 1.37:1 • Jump to Gallery ↓
Mitchell Leisen’s 1939 film Midnight is a classic identity farce built around mistaken status and romantic misdirection. Claudette Colbert plays a penniless American chorus girl stranded in Paris who impersonates a Hungarian baroness. She becomes entangled in a plot concocted by a wealthy aristocrat who wants her to distract his wife’s lover. Meanwhile, Don Ameche plays a taxi driver who falls for Claudette and searches everywhere for her.
Although Billy Wilder is known to have criticised Leisen for softening some of the sharper edges of his script, Midnight certainly has the rapid-fire dialogue you would expect to find in a screwball comedy. However, it also has visual sophistication, with lavish evening gowns and Parisian interiors.
Released at the tail end of the Great Depression, the film offers escapist luxury and the classic movie fantasy of European aristocracy, especially in romantic comedies. The Parisian glamour certainly added a touch that made the class satire more biting.
- The Story: A penniless American showgirl stranded in Paris reinvents herself as a baroness, setting off a sophisticated comedy of mistaken identities, romantic entanglements, and social satire among Europe’s idle rich.
- Actors: Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Francis Lederer, Mary Astor, Elaine Barrie, Hedda Hopper, Rex O’Malley.
- Director: Mitchell Leisen
- Year: 1939
- Cinematographer: Charles Lang
- Origin: American Cinema
- Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
- Genre: Romance / Comedy / Screwball Comedy
