The Midnight Warning

"After a young couple and the woman's brother check into a hotel, the brother turns up missing. While no one at the hotel seems to know where the man is, let alone acknowledge he was even there, the woman decides to hire an investigator to look into the matter. The investigator, his assistant and the young couple find some strange circumstances at the hotel, which lead them to a shocking discovery," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Ah… it's the old vanishing relative plot. This one moves along quite nicely, thanks to writer John Thomas Neville beginning his version from an interesting angle: hotel patron Hooper Atchley (as Steven Walcott) calls upon an old friend, investigator William Boyd (as William Cornish), after finding a human ear bone in his fireplace. Then, Mr. Atchley collapses… The unraveling mystery is engaging; and, the movie works as a filmed stage play.

Columbia Pictures model Claudia Dell (as Enid Van Buren) gets to play frightened in a mortuary, and Robert Harron's brother John ("Johnny" Harron, as Erich) has a good expositional scene explaining his involvement in the intrigue. Forgotten film veteran Phillips Smalley (as Dr. Bronson) is another asset. "Midnight Warning" obviously needs Alfred Hitchcock's direction, and a more satisfying conclusion (see "The Lady Vanishes").

***** Midnight Warning (11/15/32) Spencer Gordon Bennet ~ William Stage Boyd, Claudia Dell, John Harron

Detective Cornish goes to visit his friend Dr Walcott at a swanky hotel. Walcott has found something that Cornish would find interesting, a human ear bone in his fireplace. As Walcott is standing the window he suddenly collapses. Cornish calls for a doctor who arrives and tells Cornish that his friend collapsed from the heat, and that the blood on his forehead was from the fall. Something doesn't seem right and when the pair tries to investigate someone again takes a shot at the good doctor. With that the detective and the doctor are plunged head long into a mystery that the owners don't want them to know anything about.

From the opening minutes this movie grabs you and pulls you in. Just what in the heck is going on here? You have to know, as mystery is added to mystery and layer is piled on layer you really do want to get to the bottom of things. Certainly things take a strange turn or two, but in this case make it even more intriguing. This is a great little thriller.

The question I want to know is why this film isn't better known since its a dynamite way to spend an hour. William "Stage" Boyd makes a great detective and Hooper Atchley as Dr Walcott is simply a great deal of fun. Not only is the mystery really mysterious, you have some truly frightening scenes toward the end as the dead seem not to be so dead after all.These are the sort of thing you'd expect in a horror film not a mystery film, certainly not one that isn't an old dark house. (You may want to keep the lights on during the second half of the film)

See this movie. This is a keeper, and while you may not watch it a lot, it will be one that you hand off to friends that you'd like to turn on to a really good movie. See this movie you will enjoy it.

9 out of 10.

It all starts with detective William 'Stage' Boyd and Doctor Hooper Atchley looking at a human tympanus bone discovered in a hotel room. Atchley collapses. When the hotel doctor comes in, he suggests something wrong with Atchley's liver. In actuality, Atchley has been shot through a window.

Although the editing by Byron Robinson avoids the endless shots that director Spencer Gordon Bennett was so fond of, this is a poor movie. It's 35 minutes into this 61-minute movie before anything approaching the actual mystery is even discussed, because every time a new character enters the scene, everything that has gone before has to be recapitulated to him or her. It's dialogue heavy as a result, with some good performers standing around speaking in emphatic tones. The cast includes Claudia Dell, Phillips Smalley, and Lloyd Ingraham. None of them succeed in making this short second feature moving at any speed.

Someone is firing a gun into a hotel suite to frighten guests. But who, and why? You'll never guess the "why" part. Set almost entirely indoors, "Midnight Warning" could easily be a stage play. Which isn't altogether bad. Though the script is indeed somewhat talky, there is a secondary mystery that gives the story thematic depth.

The script is not well written. An inspector that can read suspects' lips expedites the plot but his talent isn't believable as used here. The good guys always manage to be at the right place at the right time, a time-worn cliché. And as the plot proceeds, some of the male characters blend together, so they don't stand out well as unique or interesting. The morgue sequence near the end is just downright tacky.

Yet despite the script's overall poor quality, the story's underlying premise is effective, as the ending dialogue communicates a twist that puts the entire story into perspective. I had never before seen such a plot twist.

The worst element is the film's production. B&W cinematography is awful. The visuals are so dark there were scenes that I couldn't distinguish characters from a solid black background; all I could see were their white shirts. Annoying splotches appear in a few scenes, suggesting inferior film stock. And the crackling and static that overlaid the dialogue rendered poor sound quality. Of course one needs to take into account the inferior technology that existed in those early days of film-making. Production design, film direction, and acting are below average.

The underlying premise of "Midnight Warning" is thought provoking and interesting. But viewers will need to lower their expectations due to a substandard plot and dreadful production values.

The film's premise is pretty good, with some surprise twist and unusual ideas along the way and one of these unusual things about it is that this is basically a murder mystery without an actual murder. Right when his famous inspector friend comes to pay him a visit, a doctor staying in a fancy hotel gets shot through the window. He survives with the bullet only scratching his face, but the inspector takes the case with the doctor playing sidekick and they soon discover, that there is something really fishy going on at the hotel. A gorgeous blonde and his boyfriend gets involved later on and there are some unexpected twists and a rather spooky scene at a morgue to keep us intrigued.

It is not a great movie by any means, but it could be a fun little time-passer with good pacing and some interesting characters, but... then we get to the ending, that just ruins it all. The explanation just does not make any sense whatsoever, instead of wrapping up loose ends it reveals gaping plot holes and the inspector and doctor's reaction is just unrealistic and unbelievably irresponsible. Too bad.