History Is Made at Night

History Is Made at Night is an odd film from 1937, directed by Frank Borzage. It is, like many films from the '30s, I'm finding, a mixture of comedy and tragedy. This is how life is, of course, but when it comes in a small package it seems strange and unnatural.

Jean Arthur plays the wife of a shipping magnate (Colin Clive). She wants a divorce, and he's a horrible human being. He wants to catch her in the arms of another man, because apparently this will stop the divorce. So he hires the chauffeur to do make a move and then Clive and a private detective will bust in. It goes wrong, though, when a stranger (Charles Boyer) in the next room busts in and saves her, pretending to be a jewel thief.

He's actually a headwaiter, and he takes Arthur to his restaurant, and they have an only-in-the-movies night together, falling completely in love. But Clive kills the chauffeur, setting up Boyer for murder, and takes Arthur to America. Boyer is unaware of the death of the chauffeur, and goes to America to find her.

I won't spoil things from there, but I will say that the ending is on a ship that hits an iceberg. Modern audiences will instantly think of Titanic, but of course in 1937 there had not yet been a film about that particular boat. Interestingly, the script mentions the Hindenburg, which Clive uses to cross the Atlantic. Two months after the film's release, the Hindenburg exploded in New Jersey.

Boyer is wonderful. He's so suave and debonair, and looks fantastic in a tuxedo. I'm just not sold on Jean Arthur as the kind of woman you fall for instantly. She's attractive, but kind of in a girl-next-door way. The pair seem ill-matched. Clive is really creepy. It's the only film I've seen him in other than the Frankenstein films, and believe it or not he is more bizarre here (Clive was a hopeless alcoholic, and knowing that about him adds some dimension to his performances).

The comedy comes with Boyer's friendship with his chef, Leo Carillo, who is constantly doubting Boyer's actions but sticking with him true loyalty. Carillo would later play Pancho in The Cisco Kid television series.

Frank Borzage won two early Oscars for Best Directot (including the first ever) and you can see a firm guiding hand here, with some interesting visual storytelling. For example, Boyer and Arthur are seen walking into a travel agency advertising Tahiti, where they want to go to escape. We then cut to them on a ship, looking out to sea, but the camera pans to a sign indicating that they are on their way back to Paris.

Unfortunately, the print I saw on Filmstruck is not very good, particularly in the early portions of the film, where much takes place in darkness. But I think it is worth seeing.