Black Midnight (1949)
A young man with a love of horses, Scott Jordan (Roddy McDowall) lives on the family ranch with his uncle Bill (Damian O’Flynn). When he buys a wild stallion from his black-sheep cousin Daniel (Rand Brooks), Scott names the horse Midnight and does his best to tame him. But when the sheriff (Sky King’s Kirby Grant) suspects the stallion was stolen and Daniel’s plan to get rid of the horse ends with a man being trampled, Scott must prove Midnight acted in self-defense before his uncle destroys him. The fourth of six films McDowall coproduced and starred in for Monogram Pictures, Black Midnight was directed by Oscar “Budd” Boetticher, whose seven Westerns with Randolph Scott are considered classics of the genre.
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Waste of time
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Although hampered by a corny script, an unpromising opening, some atrociously padded dialogue and the presence of an untalented youngster (Damian O'Flynn), this is one of the most interesting of cult director Boetticher's early films. (The name is pronounced "Betty-cur").True, the opening sequence in which O'Flynn and McDowall take pratfalls in and out of season, can induce a rush to the nearest exit. But don't follow the mob. Stay with it. The film has nowhere to go but up! And that it does. Indeed, some fine location photography by William Sickner, plus Boetticher's inspired use of these natural backgrounds lend the movie a sweep and grandeur that is matched by few (if any) other Monogram productions. Lyn Thomas, Kirby Grant and Gordon Jones rise to the occasion. And even Edward J. Kay's music score is a cut above his usual efforts. In all, despite its faults, Black Midnight is "must" viewing for connoisseurs.