That Midnight Kiss (1949)

hyped garbage

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This came at the tail end of the vogue for musicals combining Classical and Popular - in fact it would mark Jose Iturbi's (who seemed to appear in all of them) last appearance in feature films. Usually - Anchor's Aweigh for example - the emphasis tended to be on popular music with perhaps one or two 'classics' thrown in but here the emphasis is definitely on Classical music with only three examples of the 'popular' song plus half a chorus of It's Three O'Clock In The Morning rendered by J Carroll Naish on the dance floor. This is understandable given that co-star Mario Lanza was making his debut and lacked the clout of Sinatra who was able to load Anchors Aweigh with Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn numbers and it is fitting that Iturbi should bow out with such a high percentage of screen time. It's actually a fine cast with support led by Ethel Barrymore who has merely to look regal and toss off dialogue far unworthy of her. Marjorie Reynolds never really broke out on her own but Holiday Inn and this entry look good on her CV. Keenan Wynn and Jules Munshin supply most of the comedy, Thomas Gomez enjoys hamming it up and Arthur Treacher is droll in the background. All in all a pleasant diversion.

A young Mario Lanza. A young Kathryn Grayson. Ethel Barrymore. Keenan Wynn. Jules Munshin hamming it up as only he can.Plotwise, the movie is very thin: Grandmother finances an opera company so her young granddaughter can sing. Except, she doesn't want to sing with the old, fat tenor with the ego-- she wants to sing with the young, gifted truck driver she discovers. Then there's a love triangle, in which of course everything goes wrong because nobody communicates.But the singing is so wonderful, and so are Jose Iturbi's piano skills. We are treated to plenty of both throughout the movie. This film is a gem.

For Mario Lanza's first feature film role it wasn't much of an acting stretch for him. He played exactly who he was an opera singing truck-driver from South Philadelphia. Mario would have been 28 at the time That Midnight Kiss came out and that is his approximate age right here.Of course in real life he wasn't discovered by the granddaughter of another real life noted Philadelphian, Ethel Barrymore. As the plot would have it, Kathryn Grayson finds Mario playing on the piano and singing an old Italian song Mama Che Vio Sape. Grayson's got singing talent herself in abundance and when you're from the Philadelphia Main Line you've got a grandmother who's willing to start a production company built around her. Of course to make sure it makes a little money you want a name tenor like Thomas Gomez as opposed to some unknown truck-driver.Kathryn would rather make music with Mario both on and off the stage. The story with a few of the usual Hollywood romantic complications shows how they get to do just that.Mario and Kathryn sang a good collection of classical and popular selections. My favorite recording of Jerome Kern's first great hit song They Didn't Believe Me is from Mario's original cast album of That Midnight Kiss. It's a solo recording, on screen it's done with Grayson and done just as beautifully. MGM made a good choice in including that great song in this film.A good cast of MGM regulars supported Mario and Kathryn that included Keenan Wynn as Lanza's friend and Jules Munshin as the manager of the opera company. Best in the supporting cast however is Thomas Gomez as the egotistical tenor Lanza replaces. Gomez utilizes some seldom tapped comedy talent for this role.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer engineered a very auspicious debut for their new singing discovery in That Midnight Kiss.

When "That Midnight Kiss" was filmed, star Kathryn Grayson, a coloratura soprano, was already a veteran with 11 movies on her resume'. Even though they are about the same age, this was Mario Lanza's first featured role, and he performed it well. The musical production numbers are good-looking and great-sounding, with perhaps the two premiere singers of that era, the late 40s.Born Alfredo Cocozza, with an adopted stage name of Mario Lanza, in this movie he plays Johnny Donnetti, an ex-GI born in Philadelphia and with perhaps the greatest tenor voice of all time. It is almost a Mario Lanza biography. In this movie he is "discovered", ends up replacing a temperamental Italian tenor in the operatic production, falls in love with Grayson's character, and the movie ends with their very first kiss.I rated this movie 7 of 10. It is a nice little piece of fluff, nothing new or particularly interesting in the story. Typical MGM fare for that era. But if you love music and great singing, and want a chance to see and hear Mario Lanza, the whole hour and a half is totally enjoyable.