The Horn Blows at Midnight

This one is a lightweight comedy that never seems able to make up its mind whether to be fantasy or broad slapstick. There are some good laughs but generally The Horn Blows at Midnight is not solid. This one is a lightweight comedy that never seems able to make up its mind whether to be

This one is a lightweight comedy that never seems able to make up its mind whether to be fantasy or broad slapstick. There are some good laughs but generally The Horn Blows at Midnight is not solid.

This one is a lightweight comedy that never seems able to make up its mind whether to be fantasy or broad slapstick. There are some good laughs but generally The Horn Blows at Midnight is not solid.

Jack Benny works hard for his laughs and some come through with a sock, but generally the chuckles are dragged in and overworked. Biggest howls are the scenes depicting Benny and others dangling from atop a 40-story building.

Benny plays third trumpet in a radio station orch. Falling asleep during reading of commercials, Benny dreams he’s an angel in Heaven – and still playing third trumpet. The Big Chief, disgusted with conditions on the planet earth, dispatches Benny to earth to destroy it. The angel is to blow his special horn promptly at midnight, the blast to do away with the earth.

Heaven, as depicted, is certainly not a very soul-satisfying spot. It’s portrayed as a satire on government and the many bureaus and sub-bureaus, etc.

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The Horn Blows at Midnight

  • Production: Warner. Dir Raoul Walsh; Producer Mark Hellinger; Screenplay Sam Hellman, James V, Kern; Camera Sid Hickox; Editor Irene Morra; Music Franz Waxman Art Dir Hugh Reticker, Clarence Steensen
  • Crew: (B&W) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1945. Running time: 80 MIN.
  • With: Jack Benny Alexis Smith Guy Kibbee Margaret Dumont Dolores Moran Reginald Gardiner

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