Watch Before Midnight For Free

Highly Overrated But Still Good

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Perennial second-lead, Ralph Bellamy, has the star part in the 4-picture "Inspector Trent" series. The first of these Columbia "B" entries, Before Midnight (1933) is heavy on atmosphere but short on credibility. True, the plot presents some fascinating permutations of the usual mystery thrillers. I like the idea of the two principals switching their identities, but writer Robert Quigley is unable to come up with any reason at all for this startling plot development. Yes, a reason is certainly given at the time, but it is later revealed to be a lie! And that's not the only plot twist by far that's just simply left hanging. Nonetheless, Claude Gillingwater battles gamely against the script and right up to the end, almost succeeds in presenting a believable characterization. George Cooper (as Bellamy's offsider), Betty Blythe and William Jeffrey also excel. (Formerly available on a fair quality VintageFilmBuff DVD).

For all June Collyer's second billing she didn't have much to do as the bewildered heiress in this first Columbia entry in a short series featuring Ralph Bellamy as laid back Inspector Trent. Still, she was definitely easy on the eyes and she would soon retire from movies to concentrate on being Mrs. Stuart Erwin. In 1934 "The Thin Man" showed how witty and stylish mysteries could be but for now (1933) policemen were very straight down the line.When a young rookie cop demands a promotion for solving the "Penthouse" murder, his superior pulls him back into line by telling him the story of the Arnold case. Inspector Trent arrives at Forest Lake on a stormy night "just the night for a murder" at the request of Mr. Arnold, who is convinced someone is trying to kill him. He has seen all the signs - a stopped clock, a pool of blood under a portrait and with a storm battered window and a flash of light, Mr. Arnold lies dead.This movie isn't half as exciting as "The Crime of Helen Stanley", an Inspector Trent set in a movie studio and featuring a temperamental movie star (Gail Patrick). This particular mystery features the old standby, a secret diary that everyone, except the wide eyed Janet (Collyer), wants to get their hands on. There's the usual suspects, a crooked lawyer, mysterious Mrs. Fry (silent screen beauty Betty Blythe), a young doctor, who seems to have all the evidence stacked against him as he just happens to be treating Mr Arnold and a nervous Japanese houseboy Kono. The only person who seems to be taking a back seat is Mr. Fry (Claude Dillingwater, who I could remember as the crusty old Mr. Peck in Shirley Temple's "The Poor Little Rich Girl") and he is the key to the whole mystery. Ralph Bellamy is at the start of a long career and even in this he is never anything less than dependable.

... 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.

The film is told in flashback by a chief of police to a detective looking for a promotion. The Arnold case, he says is the sort of case that when solved warrants a promotion. Ralph Bellamy is Inspector Trent of the New York Detective Bureau. Called to Forest Lake and the Arnold residence, Trent is asked to look into a possible murder in the offing. It seems Arnold is a superstitious man and any time blood was found under the portrait on an ancestor the head of the house hold dies the next day. Time is running out. As Arnold shows Trent the second part of the superstition, a clock that stops a minute before the murder, the clock stops, a window bursts open and Arnold dies.A complicated and pre-code murder mystery this is almost a straight forward police procedural as we watch Trent try to solve the case. Bellamy plays Trent in a no nonsense hard boiled style that is atypical of mysteries of this sort. Of course there is no way to know whats going on since some of the goings on are so convoluted that you can't figure it out unless they tell you. Still its a good movie who's complication keep you interested. Certainly not a great film, it is a very good one that bears a second viewing just so you can see what you missed.Definitely worth seeing.6.5 out out of 10 rounded up to 7 out of 10 for IMDb purposes