Midnight Intruder

I don't know - is it Louis Hayward's smooth voice, his laugh, his smile - he has oodles of charm, whatever it is, and he shows it here in spades in "Midnight Intruder" from 1938, also starring J.C. Nugent, Eric Linden, and Barbara Read.

After losing every cent at the track, Barry Gilbert (Hayward) and his friend Doc (Nugent) set out for Belmont, hitching a ride in a truck. After that, in the pouring rain, they wander around and find a house which just happens to be empty. However, a servant arrives and mistakes Barry for the long-lost estranged son of the family, John Reiter, who is supposedly coming home while his parents are on a long cruise. Barry and Doc know they have to get out in the morning before he arrives. Then Barry finds a note with $500 in it from John saying he's not coming.

The two settle in, Doc reluctantly until he meets a rich widow, but they wind up involved in a murder case, friends of the homeowners, and the family dynamic.

A fun, light movie with the sophisticated Hayward giving his classiness a criminal edge. He and Nugent are funny together as well. Interesting to see Barbara Read, who would commit suicide at the age of 45. Here she's pretty and flirtatious.

I saw Louis Hayward do "The Saint in New York" and he remains my favorite Saint to this day. He had amazing charisma. If you don't know many of his films, it's worth looking into them.

This is a very entertaining, amusing, and at times even suspenseful lesson about what a mess you can get in if you break into an empty house belonging to complete strangers just because you're broke, hungry and soaking wet from the rain... That's exactly what young Barry Gilbert (Louis Hayward) and his friend 'Doc' Norton do one night - anyway, they're planning to leave right away the next morning, so it's just a slight case of trespassing!

But, when they're mistaken by the servants and even the neighbors and friends for the 'prodigal' son of the house's owner, and in addition find a letter from the son's mother with 500 dollars in it (which, as 'Doc' comments quite rightly when Gilbert puts the money in his pocket - only to give it back later, he assures - adds larceny to their 'criminal record'), Gilbert finally decides to temporarily assume the identity of the son, who's obviously not coming home in the near future - all this luxury and easy living is just too tempting for the cheeky young fellow! BUT then the real John Reitter Jr., whom Gilbert had hoped to be able to impersonate for quite a while, DOES turn up: in jail, on a murder charge... And so, feeling pity for the boy's mother and wife, who assures him that he's innocent, Gilbert (with the REAL reporter's blood that flows in his veins) tries to solve the case, no matter what the consequences for himself may be...

Quite a nice bit of late 30s' movie entertainment, with elements from comedy to crime to family drama - and obviously very much underrated and forgotten today, although it offers something not only for whodunit fans, but also for friends of a 'lighter' kind of classic cinema. A good cast and a pretty unusual script really make this movie a neat little piece of good old Hollywood nostalgia!

Barry Gilbert (Louis Hayward) and "Doc" Norton, broke and hungry, enter the unoccupied Reitter country estate, and it's not long before the servants arrive to prepare a home welcoming for the prodigal son, John Clark Reitter, Jr., of a newspaper-publisher, who has been away for several years and whom none of the servants know by sight. They mistake Gilbert as Barry and Gilbert plays along. Later, Gilbert learns that the real Reitter (Jr.) is arrested for murder and his wife, Peggy, appeals to him for Help. With the help of a newspaperman and an attorney he manages to establish Reitter's innocence. He also finds time to fall in love with Patricia Hammond and gets a job as a reporter on Reitter's newspaper.

Anything Louis Hayward appears in he adds zest and energy and a sophisticated charm. An underrated actor who is quite charismatic and great to watch. The film itself is a cosy, light mystery that zips by merrily with a invigorating breeziness. J. C as Hayward's sidekick is quite funny.

Louis Hayward stars as the midnight intruder. He and J.C. Nugent are broke and caught in the rain and break into a house for shelter. Before they can get comfortable for the night, in come Robert Greig as the inevitable butler and a full staff. They think he is John Reitter Jr., the prodigal son of the house, returned while his parents are on a cruise. They settle in for a taste of the good life, until Sheila Bromley shows up. She is the wife of the real John Jr., who has just been arrested under an assumed name for murdering a political boss...

It's a complicated and nicely ornamented production directed by Arthur Lubin; four years earlier, it would have been a sturdy Pre-Code starring Lew Ayres, but Ayres had left years earlier and was now working at MGM. There are a couple of issues. Hayward is a bit loud in his brashness, and the ending is a little quick and neat. The later issue is caused, no doubt, by the movie's short length (less than 68 minutes), but the intricate plot and screwball overtones make this a pleasing, if minor, story.

It was a pretty lucky turn of events that left down and out Louis Hayward and his friend J.C. Nugent fresh from being cleaned out at the racetrack at the abandoned home of a rich family. These two really hit the jackpot when it is assumed that Hayward is the long lost son of the wealthy family that owns the house. Pretty good for a pair of Midnight Intruders.

But the real scion of this society family is living with his wife under an assumed name and under that name Eric Linden has been arrested for murder. The wife of Linden Sheila Bromley goes to Hayward and won't spoil his masquerade if he'll help clear her husband.

Hayward's getting kind of used to this easy living and with the most charm in film this side of David Niven it all kind of works out in the end.

This is a nice breezy comedy with a role that fits Louis Hayward like a glove. I'm rediscovering Hayward and you classic film fans should do so as well.