Star of Midnight

William Powell and Ginger Rogers are a neat screen team in "Star of Midnight," a 1935 comedy-drama that concerns the disappearance of a woman named "Alice." Alice's hapless boyfriend spots her starring in a show under another name and wearing a mask. He stands up in the audience and screams "Alice" - and by the time he gets backstage, Alice has left the building. Shortly after this, a newspaper columnist is murdered in Powell's apartment. That's just the beginning. When Alice fades from view, it signals a web that connects a couple of crimes and an old girlfriend of Powell's.

Powell plays a lawyer who often doubles as a detective, and Rogers is a young woman who decided as a child that she was going to marry him. They make a good-looking and fun couple. Both handle the dialogue beautifully and play off each other well. It always amazes me how quickly people spoke in the early films. It really gives witty dialogue a nice crackle. This is also a good film to see to get a grasp on the '30s styles of design and fashions. Lots of time is spent in Powell's impressive apartment, and the slim Rogers shows off a beautiful wardrobe. There is also some footage of New York in the '30s which is marvelous.

"Star of Midnight" has a somewhat colorless supporting cast, the exception being Paul Kelly, with most of the focus being on Powell and Rogers. This is a familiar role for Powell, but I could watch him forever. He was a true master of this genre. A very enjoyable movie -I wish Powell and Rogers had been paired together more.

So, how does Ginger Rogers stand up against Myrna Loy? Rogers has the comedy chops. She's shown that in movies like The Major and the Minor. She trades quips with Powell much like Loy. She snoops like Loy. She drinks like Loy. But, she isn't Myrna Loy...

If the Thin Man series had never been, I would've enjoyed Rogers' performance more. It was a fun movie: An incomprehensible mystery where the murderer seems like a name drawn out of a hat at the last minute. The judge from Miracle on 34th Street plays Swain the Butler. The man who played Inspector Henderson in Night at the Opera plays a cop in this movie as well.

There is a nice chemistry between Rogers and Powell, but it just doesn't rise to the chemistry between Powell and Loy. Powell's detective character needs the stern eye of a sophisticated woman like Mrs. Charles to keep him humble. Makes for better comedy...

All in all, though...a good movie...

By the sheer brilliance of his charismatic on screen presence, William Powell raises this picture out of the commonplace to something special. His grace and bearing made him the picture of dapper sophistication, and no one, save for Fred Astaire, looked better in white tie and tails than William Powell.

Here he co-stars with Ginger Rogers, and speaking for myself, I did not miss Myrna Loy. Ginger Rogers was more attractive and energetic, and was a breath of fresh air. And he was not playing Nick Charles or Philo Vance. Your regard for Ms. Loy may be the key to your appreciation of "Star Of Midnight".

It sounds like a rare jewel, but the Star of Midnight of the title is about the star of a Broadway show called "Midnight". She is missing, and in fact, never appears in the movie, despite a screen credit. The mystery is to find out who kidnapped her and who killed some of the guys looking for her. The plot is confusing, but if you are a William Powell fan, it won't matter; go with it.

I'm sure that Louis B. Mayer got a good price to loan out William Powell to RKO for Star Of Midnight. No doubt he was thinking of the sequel to the immensely popular The Thin Man that was already on the boards at MGM.

Over at MGM Nick Charles was a reluctant detective who liked his new bride, martinis, and mysteries in that order. In Star Of Midnight Clay Dalzell is a reluctant detective who likes the legal profession, Ginger Rogers, martinis, and mysteries in that order. The new star of a late night revue in Manhattan walks off the stage and just disappears.

Powell's playboy friend Leslie Fenton who has been looking for her says she's a girl from Chicago he knew and when she saw him in the audience she took off. Gossip columnist Russell Hopton says he knows why and is about to tell Powell when he's bumped off and Powell wounded in the same attack.

Of course that gives Powell a nice reason to sleuth. He has to do it with the help of Ginger Rogers who just wants to get him to the altar.

RKO got Powell a little later in the decade as another amateur detective in The Ex-Mrs. Bradford. Similar story with Jean Arthur as a former wife who can't stay away.

A cast of familiar players make up the suspect list. The eventual murderer, all I can say is that it was one original disguise that was used.

Fans of The Thin Man will enjoy Star Of Midnight.

STAR OF MIDNIGHT could easily be mistaken for a Nick and Nora mystery, so similar are the central characters played by WILLIAM POWELL and GINGER ROGERS. Powell is his usual debonair self as a lawyer who sets about to solve a murder he becomes mixed up in and Ginger is her charming self as the girl who wants to marry him some day. The police even suspect Powell may have committed the murder of a gossip columnist.

The mystery is full of suspicious looking characters who might be at the bottom of the crime, but a quick look at the cast and I guessed who the murderer was before the plot even unraveled. From then on, I concentrated on the art deco settings for Powell's pad, especially that modern looking bathroom shower.

PAUL KELLY has a good tough supporting role and RALPH MORGAN is a distinguished looking gentleman (a more serious version of his brother, Frank Morgan), and LESLIE FENTON does what he can with the role of another suspect. GENE LOCKHART is amusing as Powell's butler.

Typical murder mystery from the '30s combining screwball comedy and the usual twists and turns.