Midnight (1934)

In this thirties thriller, we find nothing new. Although it seems to be the precursor of all the grainy Monogram rushed thrillers of the fourties, there is little to admire in this film but the concept that came from the theatre play of the same time, that not only deals with the death penalty, but also with Aesop’s fable concept of a Jury forman having to convict her own daughter to a death penalty for a crime she herself commits. This build up, however, is predictable and much to slow paced even for an audience of the time (or should we say, especially for an audience of the time). In fact, there is no real point of interest in watching this movie but an early performance of Humphrey Bogart, that in fact not only looks like the only on ein the cast able to capture your attention with his charisma, but has hardly ever looked so good. His presence, of course, would go on to re-release the the film as ‘Call It Murder’ in the following years, when he himself had become a star, and we must admit that it was also because of this film.