Before Midnight (1933)

The Worst Film Ever

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

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" was done in 1933, before "The Thin Man," when the style of mysteries would become a little breezier, more stylish, and employ more humor. Ralph Bellamy stars here as Inspector Trent, out to solve a very complicated murder. It has that "dark and stormy night" feel to it, but it's done with a straightforward seriousness, without the good-natured laughter of someone like Warren William or the tipsiness of a William Powell. As Trent, Bellamy interrogates like a real cop: "You did it, didn't you!" The story, however, is very good.I'm always amazed to see Ralph Bellamy as a young man and realize what a long, huge career he had. His first film was in 1931 (stage from 1929), at the age of 27, and his last was "Pretty Woman" in 1990, one year before he died. Here he's a lead, but as someone else pointed out, he probably lacked the excitement of a true leading man and was soon relegated to supporting roles. As a stage actor and as an older man, he really thrived on stage, in film, and on television; besides doing "Tomorrow the World" and "State of the Union" on Broadway, he enjoyed a tremendous success as FDR in "Sunrise at Campobello" in 1959. "Before Midnight" will keep you interested. What it lacks in pace and style, it makes up for in story.

It's a well-directed mystery with more twists than a pretzel. This movie times in at just over an hour, and had to be filled out with a prologue, epilogue and long takes of Ralph Bellamy thinking to bring it up to that. Carefully directed with full Old Dark House look and feel by long-time director Lambert Hillyer -- he had directed William S. Hart to stardom but had retreated, as had so many, to the B list when sound came in -- there's only one flaw in the mystery plot: the detective has the motive before the audience does.This was one of a short and probably unofficial series of movies starring Ralph Bellamy as Inspector Trent of the New York Detective Bureau. He is rather straightforward in his characterization, which probably explains why in another couple of years he was relegated to the role of Second Man in the movies, even if he could act up a storm when given the opportunity. Still, the story is the thing in this movie. The mystery will probably stump you and it's only an hour.