Le destin se joue la nuit

Film critic Andrew Sarris once said that HISTORY IS MADE A NIGHT is the most romantic title in all of film history, and I'm happy to report that this movie lives up to its reputation. An independent production made by former MGM producer Walter Wanger, the film reputedly cost nearly a million dollars - a huge sum in 1937 - and the money really shows on the screen. Leads Charles Boyar and Jean Arthur have such a wonderful screen chemistry between them that it's surprising that they never made another film together. Director Frank Borzage was a specialist in romantic films and here he adroitly blends romantic drama, comedy and even tragedy into a seemless garment.

The plot is surprisingly complex but unfolds in a logical manner. A theme running throughout the story is mistaken identity and characters relying on mistaken information. Boyar thinks he's killed a man, but we know he didn't. Jean Arthur thinks he's thief, but we know he isn't. Arthur's husband thinks she's cheating on him, but we know she isn't. If you wonder how these and other plot points make any sense, you just have to see this film.

Composer Alfred Newman provided a charming theme for the film and I am surprised that it has never been issued in a modern recording of movie mood music. Leo Carrillo supplied hilarious support as Boyar's friend and the ill-fated Colin Clive gave a haunted, tormented performance as the villain. Clive is remembered today as the first Dr. Frankenstein in the first two of Universal's series, FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). By the time he made this film, a frail-looking Clive was only months away from his own death in June 1937 caused by alcoholism. His performance is all the more poignant as a result.

The film is climaxed by a Titanic-like shipwreck (huge ocean liner on its maiden voyage collides with an iceberg) leading to a final misunderstanding that results in an ironic but satisfying conclusion. The special effects work by James Basevi, while primitive by today's computer graphics standards, is nonetheless impressive. My only complaint is the relatively poor quality of the film print that is available on video today. Considering the fine restoration work that has been done on other films such as HIS GIRL FRIDAY, a restored HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT should be on some company's priority list.

Frank Borzage's "History Is Made at Night" is one of the most spiritually romantic of all films and a model of how to portray a sublime, gorgeous romance on screen. Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer have never been more sublime and magical; they give some of their most luminous and warmest performances. In many ways, this is Borzage's testament: full of warmth, humanity, and tenderness.

When I wash up on that proverbial desert island with little more than a generator, a VCR (or DVD player) and a TV, I want "History is Made at Night" among the 10 films in my possession.

Someone -- film critic Myron Meisel, I think -- once described this as the most romantic film ever shot in the English language, and I completely agree.

The plot turns on some of the creakiest story points ever conceived. But no matter, because the leads are so appealing, the look of the film so overwhelmingly romantic (Borzage at his best) and the score is so warm and appropriate, that "HIMAN" is just irresistible.

Colin Clive is one obsessed man. Insanely jealous of wife Jean Arthur's imaginary lovers, he still won't let her go in divorce. Before Arthur's got a real one in head waiter Charles Boyer.

History Is Made At Night is another one of Frank Borzage's romantic films with tender lovers and lots of soft focus cinematography. A common thread that seems to run in Borzage's films is forces that threaten to keep intended folks apart. This is true in Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm where it is the political situation in Germany of the twenties and thirties respectively. In History Is Made At Night, what keeps them apart is Boyer's conscience.

Colin Clive as the husband is a multimillion dollar owner of transoceanic ship line who sets a trap trying to catch Arthur in a compromising position. When total stranger Boyer walks in and breaks up the trap and hits Clive's chauffeur a few times, Clive being the obsessed fellow he is, kills the chauffeur and says a burglar did it.

Of course Boyer thinks he did it and when he finds out the Paris police are looking for him, he and Arthur go back to Paris from New York where they have run away to. They have the bad luck to be on one of Clive's ships where from a distance he controls the fate of all.

Boyer and Arthur make a beautiful couple in love. However a biography of Jean Arthur assures us there was nothing to anything about that.

This was also Colin Clive's farewell film. Sadly he died a few months after this film was out. Known primarily for being Baron Frankenstein, creator of the undead, he was so much more than that as this film aptly demonstrates.

We also can't forget Leo Carrillo who plays chef Caesar who aids and abets Boyer and Arthur's romance. Carrillo was a guy who always added something to any film he was in.

If tender romance and ship board excitement are your thing than History Is Made At Night is your film indeed.

I saw this on a VHS release here in the 1980's and was one of those films years later I could not forget. How could one forget this memorable title with a equally interesting and unusual combination of love, comedy, drama and disaster that in many other circumstances would simply not work! Boyer and Arthur's romantic moments...pure magic as is Boyer and Leo Carillo's comedic turns. Produced to the tune of over a million dollars (a very generous budget for 1937) independently by Walter Wagner the look of this "A" production certainly reflects this. The deft hand of Borzage could only keep the goings on fluent with the seemingly challenging narrative in a film that easily keeps the viewers attention. To my mind one of the highlights of 30's cinema. I urge anyone interested in this era - see this film!! Available on DVD (mine is a South American copy and OK print quality).