L'Étoile de minuit

I love this movie!!! Although it is a rip-off of the repartee between the main characters of "The Thin Man" (and even has William Powell in the lead), it is absolutely a delight. The title song,"Midnight in Manhattan" which is heard in bits and pieces throughout and in full toward the end of the film,seems to grow on you after a while (I found myself humming it and trying to remember the words). Some of the supporting actors are a little weak.....Leslie Fenton, who is not a particularly appealing actor to begin with (although he was effective as Nails Nathan in "Public Enemy")....nor did I appreciate the bumbling policeman of Robert Emmett O'Conner. J. Farrell MacDonald is a joy as the Inspector and Paul Kelly, surprisingly handsome in his early career, is good as the local crook. Ralph Morgan is what you would expect and good at it. The leads are great, of course. Nobody beats Powell as the suave lawyer and Ginger Rogers is a wonderful light comedienne. They play very well together. All in all, this is one super little film. Plus, Powell's apartment is an art deco dream and what about that bathroom!!!

So, how does Ginger Rogers stand up against Myrna Loy? Rogers has the comedy chops. She's shown that in movies like The Major and the Minor. She trades quips with Powell much like Loy. She snoops like Loy. She drinks like Loy. But, she isn't Myrna Loy...

If the Thin Man series had never been, I would've enjoyed Rogers' performance more. It was a fun movie: An incomprehensible mystery where the murderer seems like a name drawn out of a hat at the last minute. The judge from Miracle on 34th Street plays Swain the Butler. The man who played Inspector Henderson in Night at the Opera plays a cop in this movie as well.

There is a nice chemistry between Rogers and Powell, but it just doesn't rise to the chemistry between Powell and Loy. Powell's detective character needs the stern eye of a sophisticated woman like Mrs. Charles to keep him humble. Makes for better comedy...

All in all, though...a good movie...

STAR OF MIDNIGHT could easily be mistaken for a Nick and Nora mystery, so similar are the central characters played by WILLIAM POWELL and GINGER ROGERS. Powell is his usual debonair self as a lawyer who sets about to solve a murder he becomes mixed up in and Ginger is her charming self as the girl who wants to marry him some day. The police even suspect Powell may have committed the murder of a gossip columnist.

The mystery is full of suspicious looking characters who might be at the bottom of the crime, but a quick look at the cast and I guessed who the murderer was before the plot even unraveled. From then on, I concentrated on the art deco settings for Powell's pad, especially that modern looking bathroom shower.

PAUL KELLY has a good tough supporting role and RALPH MORGAN is a distinguished looking gentleman (a more serious version of his brother, Frank Morgan), and LESLIE FENTON does what he can with the role of another suspect. GENE LOCKHART is amusing as Powell's butler.

Typical murder mystery from the '30s combining screwball comedy and the usual twists and turns.

Yes, "Star of Midnight" is a bit of RKO Radio Pictures reworking, or ripping off, MGM's "The Thin Man," but so what? It's good in it's own right. William Powell plays rich and debonair lawyer, Clay Dalzell, who gets involved in a murder, and is himself, a suspect. At his side, Ginger Rogers, co-starring as Powell's romantic companion. This pairing of Powell and Rogers is not as perfect as was Powell and Loy, it's a good match up, never-the-less . The mystery centers around the disappearance of of an actress -- the star of a play entitled "Midnight" -- hence from which the film get its title. All this mystery is wrapped with over- the - top elegance, and sophisticated humor, that was so typical of Hollywood films of the 1930's . You may guess who the murderer is, but the motive should come as a surprise -- and neat one it is !

'Star of Midnight' did have a few things going for it. When reading the plot synopsis, being a fan of this type of story and the genre, it really intrigued me. William Powell always impressed me as an actor and bad performances were rare, here in a role that suited him to the ground. Also like Ginger Rogers, if more as a dancer than as an actress (though she doesn't fare too shabbily at all in this regard, when it comes to dancing on film she's a legend), especially when partnered with Fred Astaire.

Although it is not the best that either Powell and Rogers, the latter in a very Myrna Loy sort of role, ever did (both did many great films and performances in other things before and since), 'Star of Midnight' is hardly a waste of their talents. It was far from a perfect film and a couple of components were executed very unevenly, but it was a fun and intriguing one that serves its purpose to entertain and perhaps in a way challenge very well.

Lets start with 'Star of Midnight's' good things. It looks very slick and stylish. Count me in as another person who is so envious of that bathroom. The type of script here is my personal favourite type, the sophisticated and witty kind, sorry for throwing around those words a lot recently but it is hard not to when so many films at that time had those qualities in their writing and did them well and even superbly. Much of the dialogue really crackles.

The story is mostly tight, engaging with a generally solid and atmospherically suspenseful mystery that didn't get too convoluted. Coherence was not a problem for me here. The direction was well judged. Powell is wonderfully debonair and witty, traits that suited him perfectly and at that time he was one of the best on film in doing that. Rogers fares very admirably in the Myrna Loy-type role and the chemistry between the two is difficult to resist. The supporting cast are very uneven, but Gene Lockhart, J Farroll MacDonald and particularly Paul Kelly are good.

Others didn't make the grade however. The worst offenders agreed are Leslie Fenton, who fails to inject much personality into a colourless part, and Robert Emmett O'Connor who is irritating beyond belief and overdoes the character's dumbness.

Did feel that the identity of the killer was too obvious too early, again a problem for others. Also that the ending was rather far-fetched.

In a nutshell, fun but didn't blow me away. 7/10