Middle of the Night **** (1959, Kim Novak, Fredric March) – Classic Movie Review 12,305

Delbert Mann’s once mildly controversial 1959 romantic drama film Middle of the Night is written Paddy Chayefsky, based on his TV and Broadway plays, and stars Kim Novak and Fredric March in a May-December romance.

Director Delbert Mann’s 1959 May-December American romantic drama Middle of the Night is written Paddy Chayefsky, based on his 1954 TV play and his 1956 Broadway play, and stars Kim Novak and Fredric March.

It is a dissection of a workplace romance between a widowed Manhattan clothing maker in his 50s (March) and a divorced office worker (Novak) 30 years his junior.

Novak plays Betty Preisser, a 24-year-old receptionist for the New York City clothing manufacturer Lock Lee Inc Fashions, has recently divorced her musician husband George Preisser (Lee Philips). One day she leaves work early with some typing documents to finish at home.

March plays her boss Jerry Kingsley, a widower of 56 who lives with his spinster older sister Evelyn (Edith Meiser), Widowed for two years, Jerry wants someone to love and thinks he has found that someone in Betty. That day Jerry needs the documents Betty has taken, so he drops by the apartment she shares with her mother Mrs Mueller (Glenda Farrell) and younger sister Alice (Jan Norris) to pick it up.

Mann’s film is a commendably strong adaptation of the TV and Broadway plays by Paddy Chayefsky, but avoiding – and missing – the Jewish element of the original. The weighty personal subject matter is handled with sensitivity and intelligence, gaining in significance from the big-screen opening-out treatment, though the pace is ponderous in an over-long-seeming movie, running 118 minutes. But March and Novak do very well to keep it motoring along involvingly, both giving distinguished performances. This rarely-shown film deserves to be better known.

Also in the cast are Glenda Farrell, Jan Norris, Lee Grant, Effie Afton, Martin Balsam and Joan Copeland.

Joseph C Brun shoots in black and white.

Columbia Pictures tried to sell it by turning it into a screen shocker: ‘The Shocking Hit Play Electrifies the Screen! For every girl who was ever involved with an older man!’

The story originally appeared as an episode of The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, also directed by Delbert Mann. Its seventh season began on 19 September 1954, with E G Marshall and Eva Marie Saint starring in Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night. The teleplay moved to Broadway 15 months later, adapted for the stage Chayefsky, directed by Joshua Logan, and starring Edward G Robinson and Gena Rowlands.

Martin Balsam, Lee Philips, Betty Walker and Effie Afton reprise their stage roles for the film.

It ran for over a year on Broadway before being filmed and released by Columbia Pictures in 1959. Logan complained that Chayefsky turned the story into a ‘goy’ [non-Jewish] play for the screen, and said that March and Novak were not as effective as Robinson and Rowlands.

Frank Thompson designs the costumes.

Mann had worked with Chayefsky on the films Marty (1955) and The Bachelor Party (1957).

Middle of the Night (1959) is part of the Kim Novak Collection released on 3 August 2010 in a DVD box set that also includes Picnic (1956), Pal Joey (1957), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), and Jeanne Eagels (1957).

Kim Novak

Kim Novak turned 90 on 13 February 2023, making her one of the Notable Nonagenarians.

In 2025 Novak received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival after being honoured with a Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival in 1997.

Lee Grant

Lee Grant (born Lyova Haskell Rosenthal) was born on 31 October during the mid-1920s, making her one of the Notable Nonagenarians.

Fredric March

Fredric March (born Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel; August 31, 1897 – April 14, 1975).

Fredric March won two Academy Awards for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), a Golden Globe Award, and two Tony Awards.

The cast

The cast are Kim Novak as Betty Preisser, Fredric March as Jerry Kingsley, Glenda Farrell as Mrs. Mueller, Albert Dekker as Walter Lockman, Martin Balsam as Jack, Lee Grant as Marilyn, Lee Philips as George Preisser, Edith Meiser as Evelyn Kingsley, Joan Copeland as Lillian, Betty Walker as the widow Rosalind Neiman, Lou Gilbert as Sherman, Rudy Bond as Louis Gould, Effie Afton as the neighbour Mrs Herbert, Jan Norris as Alice Mueller, David Ford as Paul Kingsley, Audrey Peters as Elizabeth Kingsley, Dora Weissman as Lucy Lockman, Anna Berger as Caroline, and Lee Richardson as Joey Lockman.

Release date: June 17, 1959.

On a low budget of $1 million, it took $1.5 million at the North American box office.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,305

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

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