Star Of Midnight

A Little Gem
This fun little detective mystery based on a serial story of the 1930's by Arthur Somers Roche has William Powell and Ginger Rogers in fine form and RKO's great sets of the period for 90 minutes of delightful distraction. It is little known and sometimes gets a bad rap when it is talked about, since it came on the heels of the origional Thin Man. But it is, in fact, very entertaining and Powell and Rogers are a hoot together. The mystery is good, if a bit slow at times, and it is easy to see where another series could have been launched if the circumstances had been right.

William Powell is uptown lawyer Clay Dalzell, who everyone calls Dal, and Ginger Rogers is his long-time assistant and wanna be spouse Donna Mantin. She's known him since childhood, but she's no kid anymore and the two have a very fun repore as they get involved in a mystery while she tries to get Dal to marry her. Dal playfully refers to Donna as a shameless hussy and fact distorter, and tells her at one...

Star of the Silver Screen
It is a real shame that this movie is not currently available in a format compatible with the US region. But if you have a region-free player it is well worth adding to the collection. The movie stars William Powell and Ginger Rogers in roles that could easily be the precursors to the characters of the Thin Man series. It is an excellent example of the murder mystery genre the William Powell made famous in those movies with Myrna Loy. And it introduced me to the Side Car, a cocktail as classic as the movie. Enjoy both of them!

"Star of Midnight (1935) ... William Powell & Ginger Rogers ... RKO Radio Pictures Film Noir"
RKO Radio Pictures present "STAR OF MIDNIGHT" (1935) (90 mins/B&W) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring William Powell, Ginger Rogers, Paul Kelly & Gene Lockhart - - - Directed by Stephen Roberts and released on April 19, 1935, story line and film, Clay Dalzell is a suave attorney fonder of solving crimes than trying cases. His elegant girlfriend, Donna hopes that Clay will settle down and marry her. A friend, Tim Winthrop approaches Clay with a mystery that the amateur sleuth can't resist. Tim's girlfriend Alice disappeared a year ago. During the performance of a Broadway play, Tim spots Alice onstage, but she disappears again. Clay takes the case and sets up a meeting with a gossip columnist who seems to have the answers, but the reporter is murdered and Clay is suspected of the crime --- Yes its RKO doing their version of The Thin Man with Ginger Rogers replacing Myrna Loy. Check out RKO's "The Ex-Mrs Bradford" (1936) (also available from Amazon.Com) for another RKO "version"...

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