Rendez-vous à minuit

Elderly friends Nora Taylor and Maggie Ryan own a weird boarding house full of wacky characters but the bank is threatening to take it away. Maggie's daughter Sarah Jane (Ann Sheridan) is trying to be a showgirl while still being a good girl. Nora's aspiring songwriter son Tommy Taylor (Jeffrey Lynn) plays the piano at a nightclub owned by gangster Chips Maguire (Humphrey Bogart). Tommy is tired of Chips' empty promises. When Chips kills a police snitch, he blackmails Tommy into getting him a room at the boarding house.

The problem with this movie is that Tommy is a complete stiff. Bogie has more charisma in his little pinky finger than that man's whole body. For a cinematic romantic pairing, Sheridan needs to get together with Bogie but the story requires that Sarah gets together with Tommy. That's the rub with this movie. Bogie is the most compelling actor and his character has the most compelling redemption arc. In a certain light, this should be his movie and this should be a character study of Chips.

In this comedy-drama directed by Lewis Seiler, Bogart was a fugitive killer who hid out in a rundown boarding house harboring a collection of talented amateur performers and maternally oriented older women…

Bogart convinces them to convert the place into a night club and on opening night he is caught by the police, clearing an innocent man (Jeffrey Lynn) of suspicion in the murder he had actually committed…

Bogart was evidently having a good time as he delivered such lines as: "I hate mothers: all this silver threads among the gold stuff!" and had a very funny scene where he is "mothered" by Una O'Connor and Jessie Busley… However, The New York Times' critic, B. R. Crisler, summed up the film correct1y when he said that "It All Came True went from simple to simple-minded."

It All Came True finds Humphrey Bogart as a gangster on the lam from killing a police stoolie and using a gun that was registered to club piano player Jeffrey Lynn to do the deed. With the stoolie probably telling the cops about his regular hideouts, Bogart has Jeffrey Lynn under a blackmail threat about the weapon hide him in a boarding house that is run jointly by Lynn's mother Jessie Burley and Una O'Connor who is the mother of Ann Sheridan.

Sheridan and Lynn were childhood sweethearts, she's a chorus girl, he's an aspiring composer and the Moms hoped that they'll be joint grandmothers some day. Bogart is hiding under an assumed name at the boardinghouse, but Sheridan recognizes him.

Perhaps the fact that he's away from the police spotlight, fooling them even temporarily makes Bogart fall under the charms of the place which is a theatrical boardinghouse. O'Connor and Burley wax nostalgic about the Gay Nineties and Bogart kind of does also. Bear in mind that this was probably when he was a kid in the film.

It All Came True is the kind of film that would have been better suited to James Cagney. In fact he did several fine nostalgic type films in his career like Frisco Kid, Johnny Come Lately, Strawberry Blonde, and The Time Of Your Life. I'm betting this was a property that Warner Brothers developed for Cagney, but for some reason or other Cagney couldn't do it.

Sheridan's feet are firmly in the 20th century however, she delivers a few zingers that were quite up to date for the audience. Until Rita Hayworth was established, Ann was Hollywood's number one redhead and she had a bit more wit in her scripts than Rita got at Columbia.

Maybe with Cagney in the lead and someone like Frank Capra directing and someone like Damon Runyon doing the screenplay, It All Came True could have been a real classic. It's an amusing comedy as it is with Ann Sheridan at her career height and Humphrey Bogart on the crest of becoming a legend.

It isn't often a movie can change a mood, but this little piece of fluff did. Whether it was a chance to see a young Bogie doing some comic acting, or Jeffrey Lynn doing something besides standing in the shadows, or Ann Sheridan being more than a wisecracking dish, I don't know - but I expect it was the latter.

On one level this is a poor man's YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, with a dash of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE thrown in. It isn't oscar bait, but it does make you realize how much simple joy the hard working people at Warner Brothers gave to audiences during the Depression and the second world war. When I finished watching, I could just imagine pushing out into the evening air after the show, taking my date to get a piece a pie and cup of coffee someplace, and basking the warm glow of a simple happy time.

Taken for what it is, you'll have a heck of a good time with IT ALL CAME TRUE.

Fun WB comedy with Humphrey Bogart playing a gangster who blackmails piano player Jeffrey Lynn into hiding him out at his mother's boarding house. The boarding house is full of colorful characters such as Zasu Pitts, Felix Bressart, Grant Mitchell, and Una O'Connor. Not to mention beautiful Ann Sheridan. Before long Bogie gets the bright idea to turn the place into a night club, in part out of boredom and in part to impress Sheridan.

Bogie seems to be having a great time in a lighter role. He was really good with comedy. Sheridan is the real star of the picture. Her brassy character has all the best lines and even gets to sing some songs. The assorted kooks at the boarding house are lots of fun to watch. Great comedic character actors all. Even Jeffrey Lynn shines in this one. If you like WB gangster movies you'll surely like this. Lots of snappy dialogue and plenty of laughs too.