Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

mmipyle I was in a Bogart mood last night, so I put in a film I've not watched in twenty-five years, at least. I recently bought "Midnight" (1934) (and the original title!) from Grapevine because it's the original release print and not the re-release under the title "Call It Murder" (1947), a print that has been circulating forever in the market. I'd never seen an original print. Trust me, original or re-release, this All Star Pictures produced/Universal Pictures release needs mouth to mouth resuscitation to be watched today. It's got a really superb cast, but they had to have made this one for the money alone. Why else would any of them - INCLUDING THE DIRECTOR!!!!!! - have allowed the credits to misspell their names?? The director, Chester Erskine, shows up nearly immediately as Chester Erskin; then the cast begins and Lynne Overman has his first name spelled without the final "e", too; next is Moffat Johnston as Moffat Johnson; and lastly the well-known character actor Henry O'Neill shows up missing the final "l" in his last name. I guess 'eetl' cost a tad too much to add... Anyway, the premise for this film is decent, but very, very depressing. In some ways, that's the point. A jury for a crime of passion gives the woman who committed the crime the death sentence instead of letting her off. We watch the clock (and all the events that happen with several characters) tick away until the midnight when the execution happens. The foreman of the jury, played by O. P. Heggie, claimed that it was murder because of a technicality based in a question he himself is allowed to ask the "guilty" woman, played by Helen Flint. A lot of people outside of the court don't agree after the verdict is read in court. We see all of this played out against the time to the execution. O. P. Heggie's daughter, and the first name in the cast, is played by Sidney Fox (an actress who is allowed to be called one because she was allowed to be called one - period). She falls - in the meantime - for small time hoodlum, Gar Boni, played by Humphrey Bogart. Others in this cast include Henry Hull (who plays a really sneaky newspaperman), Margaret Wycherly (she was Cagney's "Ma" in "White Heat" - and here she's actually a nice-looking older woman instead of the crone she so often played), Granville Bates, Cora Witherspoon, Katherine Wilson, and actor and future director Richard Whorf. The biggest problem with this film besides direction was a lack of creativity in producing it on film. It's definitely the kind of thing that belongs almost exclusively on stage - or a half-hour TV show during the 1950's, done live. The editing is non-existent. Time back and forth could have been done, rather than the stagnant linear movement forward which drags on and on and on. Thankfully, after a full 76 minutes, the program ends. By the way, Bogie himself has some razzmatazz in his voice, but even he's boring... Molasses that isn't sweet isn't sweet, people. Best thing in the picture is Lynne Overman. That's not surprising. He's always rich in character. Here he's a shiftless, no-good husband of Katherine Wilson who'd rather be rolling dice or the like. I know, who's Katherine Wilson? I don't know, either, so quit asking!

sol1218 (There are Spoilers) " Call it Murder" is an overly sanctimonious film about how the justice system works only for the rich and well connected among us. As for those of us who're just barley making it in this cold cruel and unjust world tough luck and take whatever you can get, or not get, from the system if your to stand trail before it. This is what happens to housewife Ethel Saxton, Helen Flint, who was convicted for the murder of her philandering husband and is to be executed by the state at the stroke of "Midnight"; Which is the original title of the movie.As the minutes tick away until Ethel is strapped into the electric chair an unruly crowd assembles in front of the home of the jury foreman Edward Weldon, O.P Heggie, who was instrumental in convicting Ethel of first degree murder. Inside Weldon's house newsman Noland, Hery Hull, had got Weldon's sleazy son in-law Joe Bigger, Lynne Overman, to secretly help him install a radio broadcasting system to broadcast the reaction of Weldon and his family members as soon as the news of Ethel's execution is made public on the radio.Weldon's free spirited and ultra, or bleeding heart, liberal daughter Stella, Sidney Fox, always felt that Ethel Saxton was innocent in the murder of her husband since it was an crime of passion not premeditated murder. Stella is very much against what he father did in sending Ethel to the electric chair who's so strict in his views of law and order that he, in the way he talks, would even send a family member to death if in fact the law justifies it. By the time the movie ends Weldon would in fact get his chance to prove if his actions matches his words with his beloved daughter finding herself in the same situation that poor and condemned Ethel faces now with death just minutes away!***SPOILERS*** The film is about as convoluted as it can get in showing us how those like the well connected Edward Weldon can grease the wheels of justice to have things come out in his, or his family's, favor. With Weldon's daughter Stella openly admitting her responsibility for the murder of her hoodlum boyfriend Gan Boni, Humphrey Bogart, Weldon gets his good friend and city District Attorney Plunkett, Moffat Johnston, to make her change her mind with his usual shyster like double-talk and brain twisting psychological explanations that no one, not even Pluckett, could quite fully understand! This is the same Plunkett who's hair splitting and full of hot air shyster tactics, in reverse, sent the poor and knowing one one in high places, like Edward Weldon, Ethel Saxton straight to the Sing Sing electric chair!Even though future Hollywood superstar Humphrey Bogart was given top billing in the Video Tape release version of "Midnight", which was called "Call it Murder", his biggest contribution to the film was getting himself shot and killed off camera. Were in fact never shown who exactly rubbed Bogart, or Gar Boni, out but made to think that it was his girlfriend, whom he just dumped, Stella Weldon who did it. It's after Plunkett's long and confusing explanation of what were the circumstances that lead to Gar Boni's murder that you, as well as Stella and everyone else in the movie, aren't quite sure who did Gar Boni in! It may have even been the luckless Ethel Saxton who, despite being executed at the exact moment of Gar Boni's murder, somehow from beyond her grave, or the city morgue, got to him!

blanche-2 This film was originally called "Midnight." In a noir set that I have, it's titled "Call it Murder" and Humphrey Bogart is top-billed. Originally he was listed as 8th in the cast, as he really doesn't have that much to do. It's of interest because of his presence - he plays a criminal, but he's a young leading man here - but otherwise, there isn't much to recommend it.Why this is in a film noir set is beyond me. It's a melodrama (based on a play) that moves like an iceberg. The acting is stilted, as is the dialogue. The plot centers around a jury foreman (O.P. Heggie) whose jury has sent a young woman to the electric chair, and she is due to die that evening. People are begging him to stop the execution. This is my first problem. What can he do other than say there was a miscount? Anyway, he stands by his decision. When his own daughter (Sidney Fox) lands in the same predicament, claiming she killed her lover, Gar Boni (Bogart), one wonders how resolute he will be then. Pretty resolute. Ready to send her up the river, which I think is totally unrealistic behavior.All this doesn't add up to much, but it's always a treat to see Bogart, and especially interesting at such an early point in his magnificent career. He's quite good. In fact, he's the only one who doesn't have huge pauses between his sentences and speaks in a decent rhythm. The director really didn't pace this movie too well. It's early days for talkies, and many actors were still adjusting their technique from stage to film.An oldie, but unfortunately, not a goodie.

iguana2001 OK, it's one of Bogart's early ones. But he's hardly in it at all! He's just fine when he's there, but the rest of the movie is slow and boring and poorly shot. Not to mention the acting. Looks like a very low-grade B, which it most probably was. Don't bother.