Horn Blows at Midnight

Buy This Item Horn Blows at Midnight by MGM (Warner)  Available from Amazon  $19.98  on 8-31-2008     Jack Benny and Alexis Smith will never win any popularity contests as the m,ost lovable stars in the movies. For both of them, there's a sheen of cold that keeps them from the complete warmth we love about our top stars, from Marilyn to John Wayne to Ingrid Bergman; for Benny and Smith, it's like the old carton of sherbet that Debbie Reynolds finds in her freezer when Albert Brooks comes home to live with her once again. He opens it, it's all coated with ice, and Debbie explains, "Honey, that's just its protective shell!" <br /> <br />However this vehicle plays up to their strengths, with Benny as a peculiar angel (a trumpeter with a delusion of angelhood) and Alexis Smith looking radiant as she pretends to play a harp in a 40s orchestra. She's no Harpo Marx but the instrument itself suits her down to the ground. The big set-pieces and the heaven sequences are designed and photographed by Robert Burks in an amazing simulacrum of classic Surrealist cinema; Burks, of course, would later shoot all the great Hitchcock pictures of the 1950s, from Strangers on a Train to Vertigo, and he anticipates some of the magic realism of those pictures with his imagery here, it's just confounding what he was able to do. You'd think that George Pal was behind these fantasies. <br /> <br />I don't know why some movies just slip into obscurity, and maybe the financial debacle of this one has given it a bad name, but it is prime for rediscovery now. If it's a failure it's a fascinating one. Just give it a chance and you'll find yourself with your jaw down on the floor. Had HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT been signed by Ernst Lubitsch, or Michael Powell, it would be popping up on Ten Best Lists all the time, and Criterion would have issued a deluxe DVD edition of it long ago (a limited edition, probably and it would have been taken off the market thus causing artificial price increases all over the internet). Reader Reviews I've loved this gem of a comedy since I was a kid, and nothing else makes me feel better than dusting it off and watching it again with fresh eyes. Sharing the experience with friends seeing it for the first time is a particular joy, since many have never seen this wonderful comedy -- although they have heard the title. The talent of the actors and the sparkling script put this film head-and-shoulders above fantasy films of today.

Horn Blows at Midnight Available from Amazon Price: $19.98 Updated on 8-31-2008.

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