Midnight (1934), aka Call It Murder Directed by Chester Erksine
I like to prowl through the used videos bin at our local second-hand bookstore to see if I can locate anything interesting. One film that turned up was "Call It Murder", starring Humphrey Bogart. I bought the video in order to have an example of an early Bogart role for my collection.
"Call It Murder" was originally titled "Midnight" and was produced by Universal in 1934. This was before Bogart's breakthrough performances in "The Petrified Forest" (1936), "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon" (both 1941) that made him a star. During the early 1930's, Bogart often played crooks who were either hanged, shot, or fried by the end of the film. His role in "Call It Murder" was no exception.
The film looks like a programmer, those low-budget pictures made to fill the bottom half of a double feature. I found it to be an enjoyable film, and in ways a precursor to the Film Noir genre that "Maltese Falcon" helped initiate: It posesses the Film Noir elements of cynicism and irony, and its subject is the seamier side of life.
The video was transferred from a print distributed by Guaranteed Pictures. It would not suprise me to learn that Universal sold the film "Midnight" to Guaranteed, who, after Bogart became a hot item, retitled it, moved Bogart's name to top billing, and re-distributed it. I would also not be suprised to learn that the film is now in the Public Domain, and thus made its way to video, courtesy of those second-tier video plants who duplicate tapes in "High Quality EP Mode".
"Call It Murder" tells the story of the somewhat dysfunctional Wheldon family. The family members are Edward Wheldon (O.P. Heggie), his wife (Margaret Wycherly), and three grown children all still living at home. One daughter, Ada (Katherine Wilson) is married to sleazy, ne'er-do-well, unemployed sponger Joe Biggers (Lynne Overman), and the couple live at home with her parents. The younger daughter, Stella (Sidney Fox) is a free spirit who is in love with gangster Garboni (Bogart). And, there is playboy son Arthur (Richard Whorf).
Edward Wheldon serves as jury foreman in a murder case in which Ethel Saxon (Helen Flint) has been accused of killing her cheating husband. The crime may or may not have been an accident, but Wheldon is instrumental in the jury's decision to convict and condemn Ethel. District Attorney Plunkett (Moffat Johnston), who has political aspirations, regards Ethel's conviction as an important scalp to hang at his belt, and Ethel goes to the electric chair.
Wheldon would like to get the whole incident out of his mind, but as Ethel's execution date approaches the family is pestered by the Press, who want to make Ethel into some sort of martyr. Slimey son-in-law Joe sells the family out to a newspaper reporter (Henry Hull) who is doing a story on how the jury foreman reacts to the news of the execution of his sentence.
Then, as Ethel is being strapped into the Chair, daughter Stella bursts in with the news that she has just shot and killed her cheating lover, Garboni. Ambrose Bierce said there are four categories of homicide: The felonious, the excusable, the justifiable, and the praiseworthy. Where do Ethel's and Stella's crimes fit in this spectrum? Wheldon's belief in Due Process of Law is tested when the accused is close to his heart.
Despite its limited scope, "Call It Murder" manages to be interesting on a couple of levels: First, most of the action takes place in the claustrophobic Wheldon home, which is a typical, middle-class suburban home of the early 1900's. Director Chester Erskine captures the feeling of this time and place. He also employs some clever camera work: There's a shot through the hall mirror, and an interesting match cut: A shot of Ethel pacing in her cell, shot through the cell bars; cut to a shot of Edward Wheldon pacing in his home, shot through the stair rail.
Second, the film makes sophisticated and cynical comments about the American Judicial system, about trial by jury, about how one's opinions can be swayed depending on just whose ox is being gored, about the role of the media, about the strange relationship between the Judiciary and Politics, about relationships between parents and children, and about the institution of Capital Punishment. These issues are as relevant today as they were 64 years ago.
The cast turn in casual performances as if no one believed this film was going to make or break a career. Bogart's Garboni seems stiff and forced, he would need a few more films before finding his voice. Lynne Overman makes the sleazoid Joe thoroughly despicable. Overall, the acting would be described as "workmanlike".
Roger Ebert claims in a recent review that America was more sophisticated in the 1930's, and films from that era reflect this sophistication. After viewing this modest little film from 1934, I believe it. "Call It Murder" is by no means a blockbuster, but it is a tidy little drama with more substance than initially meets the eye.
Review copyright(C) 1998 David M. Arnold. --
David M. Arnold darnold@Xexecpc.com
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