Midnight Mary

Wow! What a movie! Definitely one of the best Pre-Codes I've seen. Swiftly paced, perfectly edited, with Loretta Young at her most beautiful and giving one of her most believable and honest performances.

After seeing many of Loretta's films from the early 1930s, now I think that she gave her best performances in this period of time. There is a quality of freshness and naturalness, that gives much more truth to Loretta's portrayals in the early 1930s than to her interpretations of the late 1930s and 1940s, with few exceptions. Besides, those huge, beautiful eyes of hers, that smile, those apple cheeks, that slender figure so perfect for those early 1930s gowns, never looked better than in this period.

Here she impersonates a doomed girl, who's known all the ugly aspects of life; the film begins when she's being tried for murder. The movie is told via-flashbacks and depicts how she got into this situation. It's so strange that this picture was produced by MGM; it could have been perfectly done at Warner Brothers. Well, the director, William Wellman, had been making lots of films on the Warner lot (Loretta as well), so he must have put much of the Warner's "Touch" and "mood" into it, perfectly blending it with MGM's gloss and top production values.

Ricardo Cortez is excellent as the "aparently" suave gangster in love with Loretta and Franchot Tone is aptly cast as a society lawyer who falls for her. An excellent cast of supporting actors include Una Merkel, Warren Hymer, Martha Sleeper and those usual reliable butlers: Robert Greig and Halliwell Hobbes.

I found this film so entertaining, so timeless, so modern in many ways. Pre-Code Fans don't dare to miss it!

Midnight Mary (1933)

Wow, you'll never see so many wipe transitions from one scene to the next, which is a big part of how this great little movie moves and moves. Loretta Young is terrific in a common role for the time--a woman who is good at heart getgin in trouble through circumstance and a little too much trust, or plain old willingness. She is surrounded by a mixed and twirling (and large) cast of secondary characters, a couple of them well known such as leading male Franchot Tone.

William Wellman is a director known most of all for being professional. He has no signature style, and unlike say William Wyler or Michael Curtiz, also accused of being professionally style-less, he has no truly amazing films to his name. But boy does have have a dozen really excellent ones. And few duds. In fact, one reason I went out of my way to see this, at a neighbor's house who gets TCM, is because of Wellman.

And also because of Young, who was a starlet and a beauty in her time. If she lacked some on screen spark to make her a superstar, she still had a lovable, solid, convincing presence every time. In a way, she was perfect for Wellman. Tone, in his come and go role, is fine, as is the quirky Andy Devine (the guy with the hoarse, high voice).

Another reason to see this is the freshness it has as a pre-code film. There is a natural acceptance of couples living together (and presumably sleeping together) that is not a salacious part of the film but just makes it true--or at least less artificial. It's a great aspect to many of this era's movies, in some ways my favorite era of all the 1930s, as great as the later and purposely artificial screwball comedies truly are.

What will hold this back at all for some viewers is a lack of total polish and storytelling finesse (filming and editing, as well as writing). It isn't that films in 1933 were always plagued by small flaws like these, but even the masterpieces of the time feel a little raw in spots. This is a charm, a benefit, if you look at it that way. Don't expect "Casablanca" or even "It Happened One Night" (from the next year) and you'll really enjoy this. The plot is familiar, the acting routine, the lighting bright (high key). But it's really fun and well done and a fast ride. Do it.

Midnight Mary (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Famous Pre-Code has Loretta Young playing the title character, a woman who always finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. After a stint inside a reform school she winds up on the streets without a job but is taken under the wing of a gangster (Ricardo Cortez). She eventually tries to go straight with the help of a lawyer (Franchot Tone) but soon the gangster wants him dead. Young is one of my favorite actresses and there's no question this here is one of her most famous films but to me the story is really lacking and not too original. It really seems like MGM wanted to throw Young into the sex/vamp role but they didn't put too much thought into the screenplay. The movie certainly isn't bad but at the same time it's not the greatest that it could have been. The biggest issue with Young's vamp here is that she never does anything wrong. She's a good girl from head to toe so there's no point in trying to push her off as the vamp. What makes this film work so well are the incredibly strong performances from the three leads. Young is very sexy and believable in her role. Cortez even manages to deliver a strong performance but the scene stealer has to be Tone. Andy Devine and Una Merkel have supporting roles. To me this film works best as a love story because in heart that's exactly what it is. Throw in the sexy wardrobes of Young mixed with Wellman's direction and you've got a pretty good film that's worth watching.

Midnight Mary is pre-code bliss par excellence! Loretta Young stars as a down on her luck young woman who finds herself in situations that she never would've found herself in later in her career! From the opening courtroom scenes where Mary finds herself reminiscing about her past, we are taken on a roller coaster ride through the years to find out how she came to be where she is now! Mary isn't a bad girl, she's just had a lot of bad luck and made unfortunate choices in consequence.

Loretta has tons of chemistry with her co-stars Ricardo Cortez (yummy) and wise-cracking, adorable Una Merkel, who has a really great philosophical drunk scene in the movie! There are many scenes that wouldn't have made it past the censors later on, such as the one at the kitchen table where Loretta and Franchot Tone discuss a subject that's on a lot of people's minds a lot of the time. And towards the end of the movie, there's a scene with Mary trying to seduce Leo, who responds by licking her fingers as she strokes his face.

This is a great little morality play and a comment on the hard times encountered during the Depression Era, when many people were forced into hard choices they might never have made otherwise.

All the cast is great, including Franchot Tone as the suave lawyer who befriends and saves Mary and Andy Devine as his loud-mouthed friend who's along for the ride.

Midnight Mary really is Pre-Code Bliss!

This Review is worth an 11 for the gowns, 8 for the rest. Loretta in Adrian's clothes was a knockout...I have seen this movie twice on that wonderful TCM and that beaded skullcap hat still makes me marvel...it takes a pretty face to pull that one off. Story is interesting enough but the actors were really perfect for this big little movie. Ricardo Cortez was at his sexy handsome smarmiest..Franchot Tone was at his great kind, rich and wimpiest and sweet Loretta held the whole shebang together and I cannot imagine anyone thinking/saying she wasn't right for the part. Plus, if clothes make the man then clothes really make the woman... Now about the story...Loretta of got a few bum raps along the way, love, etc., but wait, just spend 75 minutes and judge for yourself.