Rendez-vous avec une ombre

One night in San Francisco's seedy North Beach neighborhood, a beloved priest is attacked in an alley and stabbed to death. A traffic cop (Tony Curtis), who grew up in the orphanage the priest ran, takes the murder particularly hard but sees it as his chance to advance to the homicide squad. At the funeral, he spots a man (Gilbert Roland) so shaken that his rosary has cut into his hand, drawing blood. Curtis follows his hunch that this man knows something about the murder.

Posing as a young fisherman fallen on hard times, he gets a job in Roland's crab shack on Fisherman's Wharf. Next, he's invited to live in the home Roland shares with his mother and his cousin (Marisa Pavan – Pier Angeli's twin sister). And for about half the movie, the noirish plot about the murder gets shoved onto the back burner like a kettle of red sauce in favor of an Italian-ethnic family drama (Curtis falls for Pavan, who plays hard to get, and so forth).

Though it seems as if director Joseph Pevney has lost track of the suspense story, he hasn't – he interweaves it into the family dynamics. When Curtis finds out information that he thinks exonerates Roland, he's so relieved he asks Pavan to marry him. But at the engagement party, he discovers that Roland's alibi is full of holes....

Falling late in the noir cycle, The Midnight Story recalls in its theme of a priest's killing (and in its San Francisco setting) the haunting little noir Red Light, of 1949. Red Light was pretty hard-core, while The Midnight Story is watered down with heart-warming vignettes. Still, it's more than an honorable try.

Curtis doesn't make the role as unforgettable as Sidney Falco in Sweet Smell of Success the same year, but he doesn't embarrass himself, either. Roland comes close to overdoing the lusty fisherman, but instinctively pulls short. Pavan, however, looks and acts like Natalie Wood as Maria in West Side Story. Special mention, however, ought to go to Jay C. Flippen, as Curtis' `rabbi' in the police department; one of the unsung stalwarts of the noir cycle, he brightens the screen whenever he turns up because he's sure to polish up a little gem of a performance.

In an unusually deep performance, Curtis plays a cop who goes undercover to try to find a priest's murderer. At times, the story seems to teeter on the precipice of turgid melodrama, but Curtis and Roland are always there to right the course. Roland is magnificent as the Italian patriarch whose family Curtis invades. The painstaking attention that the film gives the Italian neighborhood and its collective perspectives pays handsome dividends. Worth a look.

Tony Curtis stars in "The Midnight Story" from 1957. The film also featured Gilbert Roland, Marisa Pavan, Argentina Brunetti, J. C. Flippen, and Herb Vigran.

When a beloved priest is killed in San Francisco, Joe Martini (Curtis) takes it very hard, as the priest was in charge of an orphanage where Martini once lived. At the funeral, he spots a man, Sylvio (Roland) who seems extremely agitated over the priest's death. He decides to investigate.

When he can't get permission from his superiors, Joe resigns and infiltrates himself into Sylvio's life, even to the point of staying at his house. He falls in love with Anna (Pavan) who is Sylvio's cousin and lives in the house.

However, in trying to check Sylvio's alibi for the night the priest was killed, he's not able to verify it. When he finally is, he proposes to Anna. At their engagement party, his old boss has some bad news for him.

I wasn't as enthusiastic about this film as others on IMDb. I found it very overwrought, even taking into account that the acting style back then was more overt.

Curtis, however, was wonderful as a determined young man, one of warmth and charm, as his emotions get in the way while attempting to learn the truth about his newfound friend.

Curtis was one of four hot Hollywood hunks in the '50s along with fellow Universal star Rock Hudson, 20th Century Fox's Robert Wagner, and Warner's Tab Hunter. Of the four, I feel Tony was the best actor - certainly the only one with stage experience - and exhibited more range than the others.

This is a pretty good movie that will keep you interested.

A beloved parish priest is knifed in an alley in San Francisco. Motorcycle cop Tony Curtis asked to be transferred so he can investigate; the priest had been a tremendous influence on him at the orphanage. He's turned down. At the funeral he spots Gilbert Roland - harboring the unfortunate name of 'Malatesta' - and has a hunch. His superiors put him on leave, and he gets on Roland's good side, moves into his home, and falls in love with with Roland's cousin, Marisa Pavan, while trying to find some reason to confirm his suspicion.

It's clearly a Tony Curtis vehicle, but as soon as Roland steps onto the screen, he pushes The star off. In fact, the only way for anyone else to get their time on. Screen is to have Roland someplace else. He's big, he's boisterous, he's good-hearted, and loves everyone, particularly the dead parish priest. What a mistake for any actor to agree to be in a movie with him!

Besides Gilbert Roland, this movie features some nice location shooting in San Francisco, which is completely recognizable, despite never showing the Golden Gate Bridge, cablecars, Union Square or the Transamericabuilding (that last had not been built yet).

The Midnight Story (AKA: Appointment With A Shadow) is directed by Joseph Pevney and written by Edwin Blum and John Robinson. It stars Tony Curtis, Marisa Pavan, Gilbert Roland and Jay C. Flippen. Music is by Joseph Gershenson and CinemaScope cinematography is by Russell Metty.

When a San Francisco priest is murdered, friend of the priest, Joe Martini (Curtis), a traffic cop, gets a hunch and ingratiates himself into the family of the man he thinks is responsible.

Somehow it has become one of those 1950s black and white crime movies entered into film noir publications. It doesn't belong in that particular filmic chest, but it does ask to be sought out by fans of such 1950s fare. In actuality it's a whodunit? Thrusting a handsome and restrained Curtis into a murder mystery while his emotions get whacked from all sides. Filmed (joyously so) and set in Frisco, the makers never once play their hand to reveal what the finale will bring.

The everyday life of a working and loving Italian-American family is vividly brought to life, luring us in to their world as intrigued but concerned observers - the North Beach District a sweaty backdrop just waiting to spill its secrets. Pevney keeps things brisk, never letting things sag, even as the inevitable romantic thread dangles (it's 1950s Tony Curtis after all), there's always an air of suspicion and mystery pulsing away in the narrative.

Curtis fronts up for dressage, but delivers promise on an interesting role, but it's Roland's movie all the way. A damn fine turn that only comes to being in the final quarter. In support there is the sturdy presence of Flippen and Ted de Corsia, both of whom leave a telling mark. Each and all building to a finale, which may not contain the wallop one had hoped, but strikes a positive note and rounds it out as a film to seek out. 7/10