The Midnight Story

1957 "The strangest manhunt in the history of crime!"
6.7| 1h29m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 04 June 1957 Released
Producted By: Universal International Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Beloved priest Father Thomasino is murdered in a San Francisco alley, and the police have few clues. But traffic cop Joe Martini becomes obsessed with finding the killer; he suspects Sylvio Malatesta. Ordered off the case, Joe turns in his badge and investigates alone. Soon he is a close friend of the Malatesta family, all delightful people, especially lovely cousin Anna. Uncertain whether Sylvio is guilty or innocent, Joe is now torn between old and new loyalties.

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Reviews

Console best movie i've ever seen.
CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
clanciai This is vintage Tony Curtis when he acted in notable films like "Sweet Smell of Success" with Burt Lancaster and "The Defiant Ones" with Sidney Poitier, and this is perhaps the best of them. It all happens in San Francisco, when a Catholic priest is brutally murdered by getting knifed in the back, and immediately the mystery arises: whoever would want to do so such a thing to a priest who was beloved by all? And there are no clues to the mystery whatsoever. Tony Curtis is a cop and has been raised as a an orphan by the murdered priest, he carries the coffin at the farewell service and there meets a fellow Italian who appears to be burning in hell. Curtis immediately gets a hunch, the faintest of leads by a mere feeling, and lays down his badge to start a private investigation of his own.What follows is a Dostoievskian psychological drama. Gabriel Roland plays the Italian father who welcomes Curtis as one of the family, and he finds happiness and even a perfect fiancée in the family (Marisa Pavan, like another Natalie Wood as the West Side Story Maria). The character and development of this film is very much like Edward Dmytryk's "Give Us This Day" about Italian immigrants in Brooklyn 1929, but this is more interesting psychologically. The crisis is inevitable, which breaks out into a total tragedy - which proves to have been the only happy solution.It's a tremendous film, and it will remain actual forever and of as lasting an interest as any Dostoievsky novel.
jcplanells3 When young, I saw this movie three or four times, and from then I have not seen more: not TV exhibits, not video edition (at least in my country) and no DVD edition (as I know). Instead, I keep a formidable memory of it: a crime story where the humanity of the characters reveals to be the most important thing: Tony Curtis searches a murderer, and takes friendship with Gilbert Roland, and fall in love with Roland's sister, Marisa Pavan. But Roland is the murderer that he has searched, and when he discovers that, explodes the human conflict --the friendship, the treason, the love-- and that gives the force of the film. Perhaps it is the masterpiece of Pevney, a modest director with some interesting movies, today forgotten in favour of others directors and movies not always betters than theirs. I wished that more people could see this film, and appreciate its valors and quality. A modest story of friendship and crime.
Nicholas Rhodes Several viewings of this film have lead me to the following conclusion - that it is a 1950's gem ! I cannot speak more highly of it. Plot and acting are very impressive and although it is unfortunately filmed in Black and White, this does serve to increase the 1950's atmosphere. The world of Italian Americans is portrayed marvellously and I wonder today whether it is the same ! Unfortunately I do not know any Italian Americans. In general I like films where priests play a rôle although it must be said that that is not the main element here - it's just that the initial murder is that of a priest ! What really interested me was the relationship between Tony Curtis and the Malatesta family - there's also romance too to add to the suspense of "who did the murder". Although I have an excellent VHS recording of this, I would have liked to own it on DVD but it would appear to be one of those films that has fallen into oblivion;
aromatic-2 In an unusually deep performance, Curtis plays a cop who goes undercover to try to find a priest's murderer. At times, the story seems to teeter on the precipice of turgid melodrama, but Curtis and Roland are always there to right the course. Roland is magnificent as the Italian patriarch whose family Curtis invades. The painstaking attention that the film gives the Italian neighborhood and its collective perspectives pays handsome dividends. Worth a look.