Midnight

[PhoenixRising]

I only saw it for the first time recently, but I think it is one of my favorites. Claudette Colbert is genius in it. I think I like it even better than "It Happened One Night." John Barrymore, who I'd never seen before, is also very good in it.

I am surprised and saddened that this movie is not more well-known, although I guess I should be glad it was at least released on DVD. Why don't they really make screwball comedies like this anymore? I heard that screwball comedies arose as an outlet for the sexual repression movie production companies were feeling under the Code. If so, I guess it makes sense that the screwball comedy kind of died out with the Code.

[Beaucaire]

A truly enjoyable screwball comedy!

Just before seeing this highly entertaining film on videocassette for the first time, several years back, I had been challenged by acquaintainces to view ONLY modern-day movies for a period of one week. They knew I had long been in the habit of viewing ONLY old movies, mostly from the golden age, and felt I wasn't giving contemporary films a fair chance. So, the challenge was to be comprised of one current film (of their choice) per day for one week, with absolutely NO viewing of old movies for the duration of the challenge. I started each of the seven movies, but the longest I could endure of any of those films was 30 minutes, before I became so totally dissatisfied with them that I simply shut them off. When the week ended and I returned to the oldies, MIDNIGHT was the first one I watched, and I will always remember how superior a piece of entertainment it was, compared to the modern-day junk I had just been exposed to during the preceding week.

Those old films have a certain "charm" that present-day movies can't even come close to recapturing, at least not for me.

[daneldorado]

Beaucaire wrote:

Those old films have a certain "charm" that present-day movies can't even come close to recapturing, at least not for me.


Absolutely correct. I have not been inside a movie theater in over a year, and I have not missed seeing any new movies at all. I get my movie "fix" via Netflix, where I order a lot of early musicals, Doris Day films, mostly films made during the Golden Age.

Apropos of all that: Everyone on the 'Net seems gaga over the upcoming Oscar nominees, especially now that the Academy has expanded the field to ten (10) films rather than only five (5). And I've seen lists of the predicted nominees. Not one of them looks interesting. But that's just me.

Cheers,
Dan

[Beaucaire]

Hi Dan, I just want to thank you for being the one who enticed me to join Netflix last year. You had mentioned last summer in one of your posts about getting a film from Netflix (I think it was that MOMMA MIA), and I checked out the Netflix site the very next day. I decided to join and was quickly sold on the service. Naturally, I've just been watching the oldies they have available, but I'm satisfied. Thanks again.

Beaucaire

[daneldorado]

Beaucaire wrote:

I checked out the Netflix site the very next day. I decided to join and was quickly sold on the service. Naturally, I've just been watching the oldies they have available, but I'm satisfied. Thanks again.

Beaucaire


You're very welcome, Beaucaire. Netflix is seen by many film connoiseurs as the future of movie viewing. That's because it makes the acquisition of classic films easy, and opens up a world that a lot of us didn't know existed.

After you've surfed the Netflix site for a while, you will probably learn that a lot of the films you want are not available. That means, they are not available to Netflix. But as demand builds up, you can bet that the Netflix owners will acquire many of these "unavailable" flix, and after that all bets are off.

Point in fact: I have not seen a single one of this year's Oscar-nominated films, but if any of them get good reviews from critics I respect, you can bet Netflix will acquire them, and so will I.

Cheers,
Dan