After Midnight Movie

After Midnight
Rating:
Run Time: min
MPAA Rating:
Released: 1927
Directors: Monta Bell
Genre/Type: Drama
Melodrama
Producers:
Plot Synopsis by Janiss Garza
Film star Norma Shearer and director Monta Bell made a half-dozen films together. Bell gave Shearer some of her best acting opportunities during the silent era, even when he cast her in lightweight material such as this romance. Mary, a cigarette girl (Shearer), meets Joe Miller (Lawrence Gray) during a holdup. She takes a lead pipe from him, knocks him on the head, and then proceeds to reform him. The two of them plan to get married until one day she mistakenly believes he has failed her. They have an argument and split up, even though she has managed to scrape up enough money to buy a thousand-dollar bond for their new life together. That night, her gold-digging sister, Maizie (Gwen Lee), comes home from a party with a bond just like hers, given as a party favor. Mary begins to feel that it's pointless to lead an upstanding life, so she buys some flashy clothes and goes to a wild party where she proceeds to get very drunk. It's Maizie who has to pull her formerly sedate sister away from the revelry. On the drive home, Mary grabs the steering wheel away from Maizie and there is an accident. Mary is unhurt, but Maizie is killed. Back home, Joe, who has returned to his old associates, shows up and berates Mary for being just like her sister. Then Mary reveals that her sister has died. The couple both realize the error of their ways and decide to make a fresh start.

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The abandoned home of a wealthy man who supposedly committed suicide five years earlier is taken over by ghoulish figures - could they be vampires? full summary | add synopsis
i've heard this question somewhere before. I've always wondered why it is that when i wake up in the middle of the night that when i eat it seems better. i dont know... lol. but yea always wanted to know that answer My theory is that our pa...
Venice is an early-to-bed town, but in San Marco there's still life during the wee hours.

Cast

Actors Character Born
Norma Shearer Mary Miller Aug 10, 1902 in Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Lawrence Gray Joe Miller Jul 28, 1898 in San Francisco, CA
Gwen Lee Maizie
Eddie Sturgis Red Smith
Phillip G. Sleeman Gus Van Gundy Feb 28, 1891 in Great Britain

Back to the topReview

Review by Craig Butler
The last of the collaborations between director Monta Bell and star Norma Shearer, After Midnight is dated and melodramatic, but it still exerts an undeniable power. To modern audiences, Shearer is known for creating characters that were stalwart, upstanding, and just a bit too corny, but the truth is that this reputation is based on a handful of later films. Earlier in her career, Shearer was feisty and full of life, and though she was generally respectable, she was also sexy and sensual. Director Bell was especially aware of this fact, and it's clear that he is absorbed by the actress -- the camera lingers lovingly on her every chance it gets, but it's not afraid to show us the character being a bit petty or angry or spoiled. Bell seems to adore every aspect of Shearer, and as a result, so does the audience. The story Bell is telling is no great shakes, and Lawrence Gray is only adequate in the crucial co-starring role -- perhaps the director's fascination with Shearer caused him to neglect Gray, which ultimately damages the film. As drama, Midnight is only so-so, but as a study of a director-star symbiosis, it's quite illuminating.
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