Mitchell Leisen

Midnight

Midnight

Screwball comedy doesn’t get any more effortlessly elegant and gleefully irreverent than this roulette wheel of romantic deception, gleaming with cunning wit and Continental élan. A couture-clad Claudette Colbert is divine as a penniless American showgirl who crashes Parisian high society by posing as a wealthy Hungarian baroness—but both a scheming nobleman (John Barrymore) and a smitten taxi driver (Don Ameche) are soon on to her game. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s sophisticated script—a typically subversive blend of fairy-tale escapism and caustic social observation—and the pitch-perfect direction of master craftsman Mitchell Leisen yield a topsy-turvy Cinderella story with a cynical bite.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1939
  • 94 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #1266

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New audio commentary featuring author and film critic Michael Koresky
  • New program featuring audio excerpts of a 1969 interview with director Mitchell Leisen
  • Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1940
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic David Cairns

    New cover by Abigail Giuseppe

Purchase Options

Coming soon, available Jun 17, 2025

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New audio commentary featuring author and film critic Michael Koresky
  • New program featuring audio excerpts of a 1969 interview with director Mitchell Leisen
  • Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1940
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic David Cairns

    New cover by Abigail Giuseppe
Midnight
Cast
Claudette Colbert
Eve Peabody
Don Ameche
Tibor Czerny
John Barrymore
Georges Flammarion
Francis Lederer
Jacques Picot
Mary Astor
Helene Flammarion
Elaine Barrie
Simone
Hedda Hopper
Stephanie
Rex O’Malley
Marcel
Credits
Director
Mitchell Leisen
Screenplay by
Charles Brackett
Screenplay by
Billy Wilder
Based on a story by
Edwin Justus Mayer
Based on a story by
Franz Schulz
Produced by
Arthur Hornblow Jr.
Produced by
Charles Lang Jr.
Art direction by
Hans Dreier
Art direction by
Robert Usher
Interior decorations by
A. E. Freudeman
Miss Colbert’s gowns by
Irene
Editor
Doane Harrison
Original score by
Frederick Hollander