# Midnight (1939 film)
**Midnight** is a 1939 American screwball comedy directed by Mitchell Leisen, in which a penniless American showgirl, Eve Peabody ([Claudette Colbert](https://www.edgepedia.org/claudette-colbert)), crashes Parisian high society by posing as a Hungarian baroness while a smitten taxi driver, Tibor Czerny ([Don Ameche](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-ameche)), searches the city for her. The screenplay was written by Charles Brackett and [Billy Wilder](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-wilder) from a story by Edwin Justus Mayer and Franz Schulz, and Paramount Pictures released the film on 24 March 1939.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography) It is the second screenplay by the Wilder and Brackett team.[2](https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Apermalink=midnight)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 24 March 1939, Paramount Pictures; 94 minutes, black and white, 1.37:1[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight) |
| Director / writers | Mitchell Leisen; screenplay by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, from a story by Edwin Justus Mayer and Franz Schulz[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography) |
| Principal cast | Claudette Colbert (Eve Peabody), Don Ameche (Tibor Czerny), John Barrymore (Georges Flammarion), Mary Astor (Helene Flammarion), Francis Lederer (Jacques Picot)[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight) |
| Budget | $1,025,000, about $300,000 more than Leisen's *Easy Living* (1937), according to the biographer David Chierichetti[4](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/cteq/midnight/) |
| Awards | No Academy Award nominations; later selected for the National Film Registry[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/midnight/) |
| Critical standing | 94% Tomatometer (16 reviews) and 88% Popcornmeter (1,000+ ratings) on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore 79 on Metacritic[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1056098-midnight) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/midnight/) |
| Restoration | New 4K digital restoration released by the Criterion Collection as Spine #1266; a 4K restoration also screened as a world premiere through Cinema Reborn[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight) • [8](https://cdn.movingstory.com.au/3134_CinemaReborn_Program_P4_WEB%20%281%29.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Eve Peabody, a Bronx-bred American showgirl wiped out at the [Monte Carlo](https://www.edgepedia.org/monte-carlo) roulette wheel, arrives in Paris on a night train with nothing but the gold lamé dress she is wearing. She persuades the Hungarian émigré cabdriver Tibor Czerny to drive her from nightclub to nightclub looking for work as a chanteuse, promising to pay him once she is hired.[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf) • [9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8839-midnight-the-game-of-love) When Tibor begins to fall in love with her, Eve slips away and, passing off a Monte Carlo municipal pawn ticket as an invitation, crashes a charity concert and society soirée hosted by the matron [Stephanie](https://www.edgepedia.org/stephanie) ([Hedda Hopper](https://www.edgepedia.org/hedda-hopper)).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography) • [5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf)
**The masquerade.** At the party Eve invents an aristocratic identity, the Baroness Czerny, and wins over a circle of disaffected wealthy guests: the millionaire Georges Flammarion ([John Barrymore](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-barrymore)), his unfaithful wife Helene ([Mary Astor](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-astor)), her lover Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer), and her confidante Marcel (Rex O'Malley).[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight) Georges, playing fairy godfather, installs her at the Ritz with clothes and a limousine on his credit, and hires her to decoy the philandering Jacques away from Helene and toward herself, thereby saving his marriage.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography) • [10](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2025/06/midnight-1939-criterion-collection/) Meanwhile Tibor has organized the taxi drivers of Paris in a city-wide search for her, and traces her to the Flammarion country chateau, where the charade unravels over a weekend: just as Helene is about to expose Eve as an imposter, Tibor arrives claiming to be her husband, and Eve checkmates him by announcing that her husband is insane, so that no one believes him when he insists he is a taxi driver and she a showgirl.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography)
## Production
The project began under the title *Careless Rapture*, according to a February 1937 item in *The Hollywood Reporter*. Trade papers reported that [Marlene Dietrich](https://www.edgepedia.org/marlene-dietrich) was originally to have starred, with [Fritz Lang](https://www.edgepedia.org/fritz-lang) directing, and that [Ray Milland](https://www.edgepedia.org/ray-milland) was later considered for the male lead opposite Colbert; modern sources add that Barbara Stanwyck was also slated for the female lead but withdrew because of prior commitments.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography) A January 1939 item reported that production, which ran from mid-November 1938 to mid-January 1939, was divided into two units so the film would finish in time for Don Ameche to star in *The Story of Alexander Graham Bell*: Leisen directed the first unit and Hal Walker the second.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography)
The crew carried a significant contingent of European émigrés, including the score's composer Frederick Hollander, and the production drew on Paramount's house talent: cinematography by Charles Lang Jr., editing by Doane Harrison, art direction by Hans Dreier and Robert Usher, and gowns for Colbert by Irene.[5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight) The National Board of Review passed the film, and the British Board of Film Censors classified it for cinema release on 14 March 1939 with cuts.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography) • [11](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/midnight-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yntcxmdk)
## Reception and legacy
Contemporary response was strong. Frank S. Nugent of *The New York Times* called it "one of the liveliest, gayest, wittiest and naughtiest comedies of a long hard season," and *Variety* found the direction generally satisfactory while noting the picture was slow in getting under way.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/midnight/) The film was a critical and box office success, yet it received no Academy Award nominations; the Library of Congress film essayist Kyle Westphal writes that it "can go toe-to-toe with any '39 warhorse" despite the omission.[12](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/sabrina-1954-and-midnight-1939/) • [5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf) Later critics have echoed the point: the *Seattle Times* John Hartl observed that, ignored at the 1939 Oscars, it "seems more sophisticated and durable than several of that year's winners."[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/midnight/)
**Standing in the genre.** The film is routinely grouped with the screwball comedies of the late 1930s and read as a [Cinderella](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinderella) story with a cynical bite, its title an allusion to the fairy-tale midnight when the coach turns back into a pumpkin; Paramount's own trailer billed Colbert as a "modern, streamlined Cinderella."[13](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/midnight-blu-ray-review-mitchell-leisen/) • [5](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf) The film historian William K. Everson's successor survey by the scholar Hal Halbout places it in a "primary corpus" of forty screwball films and calls it one of the best Cinderella stories Hollywood ever made.[14](https://icd.univ-tours.fr/medias/fichier/fools-in-love-andrew-katzenstein-the-new-york-review-of-books_1728301211804-pdf?ID_FICHE=473328&INLINE=FALSE) It is frequently compared with *Ninotchka*, which Wilder and Brackett wrote immediately afterward for [Ernst Lubitsch](https://www.edgepedia.org/ernst-lubitsch); both 1939 films are set in Paris and show the pair at the top of their form, though *Midnight* has been the more forgotten of the two, a neglect sometimes attributed to Leisen's low standing among critics.[15](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/midnight-1939-2/) • [16](https://academic.oup.com/kentucky-scholarship-online/book/29244/chapter-abstract/243051537)
**The Leisen-Wilder friction.** Wilder openly disliked Leisen, whose handling of scripts he resented; the experience is credited with pushing Wilder to direct his own pictures thereafter.[2](https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Apermalink=midnight) • [17](https://letterboxd.com/obligatory/film/midnight-1939/1/) The BFI notes that it is even possible to prefer Leisen's "generosity and sensuality" to Wilder's "Viennese cynicism," and the [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) essayist David Cairns credits Leisen with coaxing the best from his stars while letting "barbs of realism subtly intrude amid all the wit and silliness."[2](https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Apermalink=midnight) • [9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8839-midnight-the-game-of-love)
**Preservation and reissue.** The film was selected for the [National Film Registry](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-registry) of the Library of Congress.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/midnight/) The Criterion Collection issued it on Blu-ray as Spine #1266 with a new 4K digital restoration, a commentary by the film critic Michael Koresky, audio excerpts of a 1969 Leisen interview, and the 1940 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation.[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight) A 4K restoration received its world premiere through the Cinema Reborn screening program, which described the film as one of the greatest screwball comedies of the 1930s.[8](https://cdn.movingstory.com.au/3134_CinemaReborn_Program_P4_WEB%20%281%29.pdf)
## References
1. [Midnight (1939), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/5067-MIDNIGHT?cxt=filmography)
2. [Midnight, BFI](https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Apermalink=midnight)
3. [Midnight, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight)
4. [Midnight, Senses of Cinema](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/cteq/midnight/)
5. [Midnight, film essay by Kyle Westphal, National Film Preservation Board, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/midnight.pdf)
6. [Midnight Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/midnight/)
7. [Midnight, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1056098-midnight)
8. [Midnight (1939), Cinema Reborn program](https://cdn.movingstory.com.au/3134_CinemaReborn_Program_P4_WEB%20%281%29.pdf)
9. [Midnight: The Game of Love, by David Cairns, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8839-midnight-the-game-of-love)
10. [Midnight (1939) Criterion Collection review, Blueprint: Review](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2025/06/midnight-1939-criterion-collection/)
11. [Midnight, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/midnight-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yntcxmdk)
12. [Sabrina (1954) and Midnight (1939), Toronto Film Society](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/sabrina-1954-and-midnight-1939/)
13. [Blu-ray Review: Mitchell Leisen's Screwball Comedy 'Midnight' on the Criterion Collection, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/midnight-blu-ray-review-mitchell-leisen/)
14. [Fools in Love: screwball comedy corpus discussion, Andrew Katzenstein, The New York Review of Books (PDF)](https://icd.univ-tours.fr/medias/fichier/fools-in-love-andrew-katzenstein-the-new-york-review-of-books_1728301211804-pdf?ID_FICHE=473328&INLINE=FALSE)
15. [Midnight (1939), Toronto Film Society film notes](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/midnight-1939-2/)
16. [Champagne and Tears: Ninotchka, Midnight, and Ball of Fire, Some Like It Wilder, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/kentucky-scholarship-online/book/29244/chapter-abstract/243051537)
17. [Midnight review by Puffin, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/obligatory/film/midnight-1939/1/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1940s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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