Claudette Colbert wanders around Paris broke and in gold lame in "Midnight." She meets a cab driver and, finding herself attracted to him, she takes off. While he's organizing a city-wide cabbie search for her, she's at a private party and winds up at the Ritz as Baroness Czerny - which is his last name, chosen by her in a moment of panic. She is backed in all her lies by John Barrymore, in a wonderfully funny performance, who wants her to woo his wife's boyfriend away from her.

There are some familiar themes at work here - one is the suitor for hire and/or opportunity, used (with variations, of course) in "Her Cardboard Lover" and "Palm Beach Story," "Mannequin," and the affable, unambitious man who feels that by having nothing, he has everything, such as in "Magnificent Dope" and "You Can't Take it With You." That's the Ameche character. Knowing she could fall for him sends Colbert running - just as she ran from Joel McCrea in "Palm Beach Story." This hunger for money in some characters (usually women) and loathing of it (usually men) is a strange dichotomy than runs through several post-Depression, pre-war films.

The handsome Czech leading man, Francis Lederer, plays Mary Astor's boyfriend who falls for Colbert. In 1929, when he made a film in Germany with Louise Brooks, Lederer couldn't speak a word of English. He lived to be nearly 101 and in his last years, taught at the American National Academy of Performing Arts, which he and his wife founded.

The funniest scene to me was a phone conversation between Barrymore and Colbert, in which she pretends she's talking to her sick daughter. But everyone is great in this movie, which is very funny and refreshing.

Screwball comedy is an art and in '39 Charles Brackett wrote a perfectly wonderful one for CLAUDETTE COLBERT and DON AMECHE called MIDNIGHT and directed by the talented Mitchell Leisen.

Claudette is down to her last coin when she stumbles out of a taxi-cab driven by Don Ameche and strolls around Paris in the pouring rain in a gold lame dress, not exactly the picture of a girl down on her luck. But the fun begins when she crashes a party given by a bunch of socialites and has to pretend to be there as a member of high society. She calls herself a Baroness and before long, Ameche has caught up with her and goes along with her impersonation, calling himself a Baron.

Of course, it takes many plot twists and turns for the whole story to come to an end, and by that time there are quite a few laughs provided by Claudette and company. JOHN BARRYMORE is in especially good comic form as a man who wants his wife (MARY ASTOR) to get rid of her lounge lizard boyfriend (FRANCIS LEDERER),who happens to fancy Claudette. REX O'MALLEY has a fey role as a house guest and the cast includes HEDDA HOPPER and MONTY WOOLLEY as an exasperated and befuddled judge.

Claudette has her best role since IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and makes the most of it. She schemes her way in and out of trouble with the disarming charm and ease of an actress who has worn many disguises before.

Summing up: A very winning comedy that is a perfect example of screwball at its best.

With Don Ameche borrowed from 20th Century Fox and John Barrymore finished with his contract at MGM, the two of them teamed with Claudette Colbert to make Midnight where Colbert plays a chorus girl stranded in Paris. When Don Ameche finds her and takes her in, she's wearing a newspaper for a hat.

She could have all her basic needs met with Ameche who's head over heels for her, but Claudette wants more out of life. Enter John Barrymore who would like to have her masquerade as a baroness, to ward off another goldigger of the male kind in Francis Lederer who has been sniffing around Mary Astor who is Barrymore's wife.

Colbert pulls it off beautifully, maybe she'll meet a really rich candidate for a husband. Lederer is sniffing all right to Astor's jealousy, but Ameche is on the scent too. He's going to find that woman who came and went out of his life so quickly. And Barrymore, the sly rogue, is presiding over it all like an indulgent grandpa.

When you have a director like Mitchell Leisen and such skilled players in comedy as Ameche and Colbert in the lead, the result can't be anything else, but pure entertainment. Barrymore is also grand in the last part he would have in an A budget film.

Down in the supporting cast take careful note of Monty Woolley as a judge, a man well versed in the divorce laws of France and who brooks no nonsense in his court. Best scene in the film is Ameche with the help of several Parisian cab drivers getting the hotel maitre'd to tell where Colbert left for. That has to be seen, no description will do.

Unfortunately Midnight is not the kind of screen comedy made any more, so see it when broadcast.