Zwischen Mitternacht und Morgen

Notable for its unusual shifts in nuance, tone and timbre, 'Between Midnight and Dawn' opens as a fly on the wall docu-noir, detailing the experiences of prowl car cops Stevens and O' Brien, during the hours of the title. Stevens' increased interest in Gale Storm results in a gawky, screwball rom-com sequence in which O'Brien finds himself cast as the disgruntled, gauche, threes-a-crowd outsider. Latterly, the movie returns to base as a ruthless hood vs dedicated cops drama.

Impressively scripted, acted and executed, including a prolonged, compelling, must see car chase, 'Between Midnight and Dawn' is one of the more laudable second division noirs. With the odd curve ball thrown in for good measure, it's worth an extensive prowl to seek out.

An American Cinematheque presentation at The Egyptian.

B-movie, second-feature that plays as a cross between classic noir and serial melodrama. As such, it's easy to see how it's often credited with being a predecessor of the police procedural.

Stevens and O'Brian play two likable LAPD patrol cops. Gale Storm the wholesome new dispatch girl who keeps their attention at night. Most of the movie deals with the growing and affectionately written romance between Stevens and Storm, making the whole thing seem at times like a vintage episode of 'Payton Place'. But make no mistake, we're in noir territory, and it's only a matter of time before we're dealing with gangsters, their molls, heartbreaking tragedy and small children being held from eighth floor windows.

The leads are so charismatic, and the writing so sharp, that it's almost impossible not to like this film. Another little post-war gem of a movie.

This is a superb crime drama featuring two buddy cops, excellently played by Mark Stevens and Edmond O'Brien. O'Brien's performance is especially marvellous, and he was really in his stride. Three years later he would be tapped by director Ida Lupino to star in 'The Bigamist' (1953), which was surely the greatest performance of his career. He 'really had it in him' despite not being the leading man type, and he should have won more than just one Oscar in his career. This film is helped by a sensationally good screenplay by Eugene Ling. It is packed with excellent one-liners and gags, and has a lot of well-judged humour, even though it is a tense and noirish crime thriller, with a lot of police procedural background. At one point, one of the cops thrusts a bill into the breast pocket of a hood's jacket and says: 'Here, buy yourself a new head, one with a brain in it.' Salty comments like that run all the way through. Modern screenwriters have absolutely no idea how to write wisecracks which work when spoken, it is a lost art, and this is one reason why so many contemporary films are so lacklustre and dull. The chief 'hood' in this story is a criminal played by Donald Buka, who is so eerily convincing as a crazed crook, with his relentless eyes and severe case of lockjaw that one's spine tingles menacingly. Gale Storm is the wholesome love interest who has to overcome the psychological trauma of her policeman father having been killed on duty, and can she get involved with a cop and risk all that pain again. It is a good solid story. Buddy cops really can be just like that. My best friend from school became a sergeant on the D.C. police force, and I used to ride around in his patrol car with him and his buddy while on duty, visit the jails and chat to the latest prostitute arrests, hang around with the cops in his precinct at the station, and exchange gags and joke with them about the street corner drug-pushers ('candy-men'). Banter was the order of the day, as it is the only way to keep sane on a big city US police force, with enforced familiarity with human vermin on a daily basis. Two nice guys really can drive around, responding to calls, draw out their guns and shoot violent criminals, bring people in in handcuffs, and then sit and have a quiet hamburger and roar with jokes with their pals. Mark Stevens and Edmond O'Brien are wholly convincing as buddy cops, mixing toughness with tenderness, and it is obvious that they were copied in hundreds of later television dramas. This was undoubtedly a seminal film which had enormous influence on the film industry. It is very entertaining to watch, though some people will bite their nails anxiously in between the jokes, as portions of the tale are extremely harrowing, especially when a little girl is held hostage by a mad gunman and dangled out of a high window to prevent the police firing at him.

Mark Stevens and Edmond O'Brien are buddies from the war. Now they are cops together in the same patrol car. When Gale Storm comes into their lives, it seems that they might fight, but O'Brien bows out gracefully. This is, until hoodlum Donald Buka escapes from prison and kills Stevens.

One of the reasons that O'Brien is so good in his B pictures around the end of the fifth decade of the 20th Century is that he looks like an ordinary Joe: all right looking, but nothing to right home about, and he could afford to take off a few pounds. For anyone else, this would have meant supporting roles, and he did a lot of those. However, he also played leads in noirs and cop movies like this one, and even westerns. That's because he typified how American men thought of themselves: ordinary people, yeah, but capable of important things. To watch his descent into brutality after Stevens' death here, even with the Production Code still in force, is a fine bit of acting.

I found this movie to be very enjoyable to watch. There was no masterful overriding story, but it moved along at a good pace, was quite genial and had no faults. It might be called an early "procedural" in today's lingo: lots of radio squad car scenes, beaming messages in cop talk back and forth, well photographed auto chase scenes and shootouts. The directing, script, acting and cinema-photography were superior. In the movie the cops were all righteous and the criminals all incorrigibly bad.

Three things stood out for me, favorably: (1) I was always a big Gale Storm fan, stemming from my childhood watching of "My Little Margie" re-runs on TV (Gale was the co-star of the TV show, and part of the romantic triangle in this movie). (2) The repartee was often witty and jocular and never off-putting. For example, on an early date, Officer Rocky Barnes (played by Mark Stevens) is having his first dance with Gale Storm, and, holding her tightly he says, "I've been waiting a long time for this." She replies, "I can believe it. I feel a rib cracking." He responds, "Oh, control yourself, Barnes. This lady's got to last." (3) The relationship between the two police partners (Stevens and Edmond O'Brien) was friendly and jocular. It was nice to observe their respect for each other. Both were quite competent. O'Brien was the more serious, cynical and hard on criminals. Stevens was more relaxed and sensitive to criminals' feelings.