Before Midnight (1933)

Overrated and overhyped

Lack of good storyline.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

From Nov 1933-Aug 1934, Columbia released a forgotten quartet of features starring dependable Ralph Bellamy in the role of Inspector Steve Trent, with "Before Midnight" the first, followed by "One is Guilty," "The Crime of Helen Stanley," and "Girl in Danger." Since only "The Crime of Helen Stanley" is also available, one can judge the series by only two titles, but it's clear that this modest initial entry has more horror touches in its setup. On a dark and stormy night, Inspector Trent is called to the isolated mansion of Edward Arnold (William Jeffrey), who believes he's soon to be murdered based on a family curse involving a pool of blood and a clock that stops. Director Lambert Hillyer proves he was no slouch at delivering oppressive atmosphere (better known for "The Invisible Ray" and "Dracula's Daughter"), and the whodunit aspects are also first rate. Lovely leading lady June Collyer starred opposite Bela Lugosi in a 1935 mystery, "Murder by Television," before giving up acting to enjoy life as the wife of Stuart Erwin. Bellamy solved quite a few cases ("Rendezvous at Midnight," "The Final Hour") before he started playing detective Ellery Queen in 1940, eventually settling into a solid character career that lasted 60 years.

... or so says a chief of police in reference to a tale of mystery he is about to tell in flashback. In spite of the the fact that this film doesn't have much in the way of production values and has only one major star of the studio era - Ralph Bellamy - this little murder mystery that clocks in at a little over an hour in length is very entertaining with a script full of surprises.Inspector Steve Trent (Bellamy) is called out to a remote estate one stormy night by wealthy Edward Arnold who presumes he will die before midnight just because he found blood on the hearth of his fireplace, exactly as did one of his ancestors the night before he was killed. What is odd is that the police would take this seriously. What is odder is that the man does indeed die before midnight and now Trent has to figure out who did it. He's got plenty to work with too in the way of suspects. There's Arnold's estranged wife who has traveled 3000 miles just to get more money out of him and admits she hates him, there's Arnold's young beautiful ward on whom he lavishes great unexplained attention and to whom he refuses to give his blessing for her intended marriage, there's the girl's fiancé who resents the fact that their wedding is being held up by all of this, then there is Arnold's servant, Kono, who speaks broken English although it is revealed he is a college man.Bellamy is great at this part. This is not the Ralph Bellamy you may be used to seeing, always managing to get his girl stolen by Cary Grant in just about every picture they appeared in together. Here Bellamy plays it cool and appears firm and in control without getting heavy-handed to the point of being silly.The film's poverty row roots do show at some points though. There is a particularly silly line half-way through the picture when Bellamy has a suspect at gunpoint and says "One bullet could settle this case" all because the unarmed man won't talk. Then there is George Cooper as Stubby, supposedly a policeman learning the ropes from a fine investigator like Trent, but I never saw a point in which he was the least bit helpful. Stubby was more like a reader of dime store mystery stories getting in the way of an investigation than anything else.I'd recommend this as a pretty good precode film.

Before Midnight (1933) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A man invited Detective Trent (Ralph Bellamy) over to share his fears that he's about to be murdered. A few minutes later the man is dead and it's up to the detective to try and figure out how he was murder and who did it. This is yet another entry in the seemingly never-ending "old dark house" genre. As usual, we're given a murder, a hero and countless suspects. We also get the usual clichés that you find in a film like this. I've seen dozens, if not hundreds of these films and it's hard to find one that offers up anything new original and this one here is no different. Even though the film doesn't offer anything too new, it does feature a couple very good twists that I didn't see coming and Bellamy is as entertaining as always. I think what really makes the film work is the performance by Bellamy who really knows how to mix up the charm, comedy and seriousness. He does very good with the role and manages to work well with all the other actors and can deliver whatever the film is needing in any scene. June Collyer is pretty good as the woman various men want and Claude Gillingwater is good in his role as well. Fred "Snowflake" Toones plays the black taxi driver and delivers most of the "comedy" in the film. The screenplay pretty much follows every "old dark house" film that preceded it as we get a complicated murder, the investigation and countless people lying to try and cover up their involvement. What was so funny here is that the screenplay was quite lazy in terms of the characters and their lies. A character would start lying to cover up what he did, Bellamy would ask a single question and then the character would break down and admit what they did. This happens at least five times in the film and one begins to wonder why at least one of them wouldn't try to get away with the lie at least a second time before admitting what they had done. This Columbia film runs a brief 63-minutes and should keep fans of the genre entertained. Others should probably seek out one of the better entries.

**SPOILERS** Whodunit with an unusual multiracial cast for that time-1933-with African/American Fred Snowflake Toons as the taxi driver and Otto Yamaoka as the Arnold's Japanese houseboy Kono. In fact some ten years later Yamaoka was rounded up with some 150,000 fellow Japanese Americans and put in an internment camp for the duration of WWII as a possible dangerous enemy alien despite him being a native born American citizen.In the film "Smiling" Ralph Bellamy playing the part of police inspector Trent is called to the Arnold Mansion in Forest Lake NY to check out threats against Edward Arnold's, William Jeffreys, life. Arnold feels that someone is out to get him to fore-fill a third generation Arnold family curse that has him slated to die before the clock strikes midnight! Sure enough as a storm hits the area around the midnight hour Arnold suddenly drops dead right in front of Inspt. Trent and some half dozen witnesses including his personal doctor David Marsh, Arthur Pierson!It's soon determined by the local coroner that Aronld didn't die of fright as at first thought but of an injection of cyanide potassium. With Dr. Mrash giving Arnold an injection for his heart condition just hours before his sudden death he becomes the #1 suspect in his murder. Inspt. Trent for some reason feels that Dr. Marsh is innocent in Arnold's murder because it was so obvious to him that he was set up to take the blame for it! Inspt. Trent concentrates on those at the mansion at the time of Arnold's death which included his best friend the mysterious John Fry, Clude Gillingwater. It was Fry back in 1918, in far off China, who saved Arnold's life from a rare and tropical disease. There's also the mystery of the late Edward Arnold's live in secretary Janet Holt, June Collyer, who as it later turned out was the reason, without her having a clue about it, for Arnold's murder. ***SPOILERS*** As Inspt. Trent starts to uncover the mystery behind Arnold's murder he zeros in on Arnold houseboy Kono who not only knows who was behind his "Master's" murder but what was the instrument of murder that he used to kill him. There's also the late Arnold's shyster lawyer Howard B. Smith, Bradley Page, and John Fry's estranged wife Marvis, Betty Blythe. The two are involved in trying to get their hands on Janet's late moms diary locked in the Arnold mansion's safe that reveals the true reasons for Arnold's infatuation with both her and her daughter that may have well been the real reason for his murder. A little on the complicated side "Before Midnight" does keep the audience as well as Inspt. Trent guessing to who murdered Arnold who as it turned out was someone as close to him as his very shadow. The surprise ending came so unexpectedly that it even took the cool and collective Inspt. Trent by surprise even though he was the one who figured it out!