This is an obvious attempt to recreate the chemistry of Powell and Loy in the big hit The Thin Man of the previous year. But RKO was only going to get Powell out of MGM, so Ginger Rogers is the leading lady here. Don't get me wrong. I love Ginger Rogers, but there is just something indescribable in the chemistry of The Thin Man films between Powell and Loy. If it was describable, it would have not been worth so much money.
Clay Dalzell (William Powell) is a lawyer of means at midlife. Donna Mantin (Ginger Rogers) is a woman in her early twenties who has had a crush on Clay since childhood and has always said she wanted to marry him. Clay likes the bachelor life. Maybe he sees down the road where Donna doesn't as to how this May December romance could have some bumps in the road ten to fifteen years from now, but I digress.
Clay gets wrapped up in a disappearance/murder case when his friend Tim Winthrop (Leslie Fenton) comes to Clay and says he wants him to help him find a girl he wanted to marry who disappeared without a trace the year before. Tim thinks he recognizes the star of Midnight - a Broadway show - as his long lost girlfriend and cries out her name in the middle of the show. The titular "star of Midnight" then runs off the stage and disappears. A local reporter comes to Clay and says that he has solved the case of the disappearance of the "star of Midnight", but before he can tell Clay anything somebody shoots and kills the reporter and wounds Clay.
At this point the plot gets very muddled and you have to both pay close attention and just know when to jettison certain questions and contradictions in the plot or else you will be lost. All the while Rogers is playing a part very much like Myrna Loy in the Thin Man films by inserting herself into the investigation, invited or not.
It is odd to see Leslie Fenton playing a nice guy for a change. Paul Kelly makes an appearance as a suave gangster who has a good head on his shoulders. Gene Lockhart, who usually pays cowardly and dastardly or at least pig headed characters is pretty good as Powell's gentleman's gentleman. But then if Eric Blore had played the butler this would have looked too much like an Astaire/Rogers film and people would have expected William Powell to perform at least one dance number.
Clay Dalzell (William Powell) is a lawyer of means at midlife. Donna Mantin (Ginger Rogers) is a woman in her early twenties who has had a crush on Clay since childhood and has always said she wanted to marry him. Clay likes the bachelor life. Maybe he sees down the road where Donna doesn't as to how this May December romance could have some bumps in the road ten to fifteen years from now, but I digress.
Clay gets wrapped up in a disappearance/murder case when his friend Tim Winthrop (Leslie Fenton) comes to Clay and says he wants him to help him find a girl he wanted to marry who disappeared without a trace the year before. Tim thinks he recognizes the star of Midnight - a Broadway show - as his long lost girlfriend and cries out her name in the middle of the show. The titular "star of Midnight" then runs off the stage and disappears. A local reporter comes to Clay and says that he has solved the case of the disappearance of the "star of Midnight", but before he can tell Clay anything somebody shoots and kills the reporter and wounds Clay.
At this point the plot gets very muddled and you have to both pay close attention and just know when to jettison certain questions and contradictions in the plot or else you will be lost. All the while Rogers is playing a part very much like Myrna Loy in the Thin Man films by inserting herself into the investigation, invited or not.
It is odd to see Leslie Fenton playing a nice guy for a change. Paul Kelly makes an appearance as a suave gangster who has a good head on his shoulders. Gene Lockhart, who usually pays cowardly and dastardly or at least pig headed characters is pretty good as Powell's gentleman's gentleman. But then if Eric Blore had played the butler this would have looked too much like an Astaire/Rogers film and people would have expected William Powell to perform at least one dance number.