The other night, while scrolling through Amazon Prime Instant Video, I came across the film “A Tragedy at Midnight” (1942, Republic Studios). The film revolves around a “Radio Detective” and his wife who are involved in a murder investigation when the Detective himself is framed for murder. If you are wondering what a “Radio Detective” is, he’s basically a True Crime broadcaster who, in this case, has a better solve rate than the police themselves.
During my research on the runtime discrepancy, I found several reviewers who stated that this was of great concern because it set up who several key characters were for the viewer. According to these reviewers, this was of great detriment to the viewer. I have to respectfully disagree here. I found no difficulty following the plot or understanding the relationship of all characters to the protagonists. I think that the missing fourteen minutes might seem far more relevant to someone who had watched the film in its entirety and now feels the absence of the deleted scenes. And I might agree with them if I saw the missing scenes myself, but as it stands now, I fully understood the relationships of all characters, and I found the setup easy to follow. The additional scenes might be fun to watch, and might add more meat to the story, but their absence doesn’t ruin the film.
As to the casting, this film stars John Howard (who I recognized from “The Philadelphia Story) and Margaret Lindsay (who I recognized from “The House of the Seven Gables"). I really liked Lindsay in this film, and I feel that she, for the most part, carried it. Howard, who I think was a really handsome man, didn’t play that way in this film. He had his moments of being amusing or heroic, but, for the most part, his styling combined with an uncharacteristic smirk, gave him a feel of being a poor man’s Clark Gable. Gable was just far better at pulling off that mustache and that smirk. He had the charm to make the smirk seem, well, charming. With Howard, it just plays as inappropriate, even condescending at times.
Now, for the elephant in the room. This film is VERY similar to “The Thin Man” series. It is done to such an obvious point that I thought that this film might have come first. I thought this for two reasons. The first was that the production quality was not as good as “The Thin Man”. These lower production issues made the “A Tragedy at Midnight” feel older than “The Thin Man.” The second reason was that the parallels were so obvious that it was hard to believe that any studio would be that obvious about their knockoff.
So, yes, the comparisons must be made between this film and “The Thin Man,” the banter, the wife who feigns jealousy, but who sometimes really is jealous, right down to the husband calling his wife “Mommy.” It’s there. Anyone who tries to tell you that they don’t see it must not have ever seen Nick and Nora in action. And it’s not poorly done here. It’s fairly well done. It’s just not well done to the standard of William Powell and Myrna Loy. And we shouldn’t expect it to be. Powell and Loy had a really rare and special chemistry together. It was an amazing thing to see. Amazing in ALL of their films together, not just their Nick and Nora films.
He was charming and debonair. She was beautiful and quick as a whip. They had a biting humor that was based on a mutual respect for each other, both in character (Nick and Nora’s relationship was so fun BECAUSE they were a couple who truly respected and valued each other) and in real life. So much so in real life that when Powell got cancer, he continued to perform in the films while undergoing treatment, even though he was warned that doing so might dramatically shorten “the time he had left”. He ended up living almost half a century after that.
But that’s neither here nor there. I’m not reviewing “The Thin Man.” I’m reviewing “A Tragedy at Midnight.” The problem is that the comparison has to be made. It is always made. It will always be made. This film was a direct homage (or a total rip-off, depending on the opinion of the person discussing it). You could actually see Powell and Loy in these roles. You could see them doing it better. But that’s not this film’s fault. It’s not Howard and Lindsay’s faults. You just have to chalk it up to Powell and Loy having better chemistry. You have to chalk it up to that and move on.
Because despite being Nick and Nora imitators, despite the missing scenes, despite the perma-smirk, this is actually a good film. I really enjoyed it. It was humorous. It was fun. It was entertaining. The resolution made sense. How that resolution was made (Green versus Blue – not a spoiler, you won’t understand until the main character tells you) was ridiculous. I just found it difficult to suspend disbelief for that little bit, but the actual Who in Whodunnit made sense. The motive made sense. The movie was fun and made sense.
I think that my favorite scene was the “Shadow Scene”. You’ll know it when you see it. I thought that was cute and clever, all while being a little silly.
Despite all of the things that should be drawbacks (especially for me, as a Nick and Nora obsessed fan), I thoroughly enjoyed “A Tragedy at Midnight”, so I give this film a 4/5 (or an 8/10 in IMDB). This movie is like Nachos: a little corny, a lot cheesy, and completely fun to devour.
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