VIEWER'S GUIDE: Strictly adults only.

COMMENT: Lancaster has always stated that he wanted to direct but The Kentuckian (1955) and The Midnight Man are in fact his only ventures behind the cameras. Although he did an excellent job with Midnight, the film failed dismally at the boxoffice, despite my opinion that it had all the elements I would have thought necessary for success in 1974. Sex, violence, corruption and a strong antipathy towards authority and the establishment whose officials are depicted as either hopelessly incompetent or ruthlessly on the take.

Amidst all this prejudice, brutality and malfeasance, the Right has only one tainted champion. And although the odds are impossibly stacked against him, he does - through sheer grit and physical stamina on the one hand, tireless self-honesty and mental acuity on the other - eventually win through. It's a noble theme and Lancaster does it proud.

In addition to Lancaster's persuasive performance, his incisive direction and his intriguing script, what I like about The Midnight Man is its atmosphere. Not only its realistically observed small university town, all sunny community on the outside, but the more personal atmosphere of loss and disillusionment, of bitter but ruthlessly pursued truth-seeking that Lancaster brings to every scene.

Director Lancaster has made vibrant use of his support players and utilized his many brilliantly-chosen natural locations to bring his story to throbbing life. Other technical credits are likewise highly commendable, especially Jack Priestley's mood-evocative cinematography and Dave Grusin's cleverly atmospheric score which often lightens and transforms the violence into softer, autumnal shades of nostalgia and regret.

OTHER VIEWS: I'm not surprised JHR likes this one as it has many of the qualities of a JHR novel, including a dominant yet disillusioned central character, seemingly servile but actually strong and self-willed, prepared to sacrifice anything and everything for unfashionable ideals of truth and honesty. Although basically a loner, the hero is presented in a sympathetic and involving manner. It's all summed up by the sad, wistful air of regret in Lancaster's face as the camera pans in for its final end-of-the-Mitchell-story close-up.

This could easily have been a script leftover in some shoebox from an unmade 1949 noir. It's a complicated story of blackmail and betrayal. Burt Lancaster is an ex-cop just released from prison, given a job by an old friend (Cameron Mitchell) as night watchman at a college, who falls in love with his parole officer (Susan Clark). A murder takes place. Several murders take place. And some of the signs seem to point to the innocent Burt. There's a blackmail plot with lots of money involved. Well, now, Burt may have just gotten out of the slams but he hasn't unlearned the investigative skills he picked up while on the job in Chicago. Fighting against the local cops every inch of the way, he cracks the case, but not to his satisfaction. He's been used and betrayed by everyone he was close to.

No one looks out of place. Susan Clark actually looks pretty darned smokin', with her slender figure and queer beauty, a little goofy, like Nancy Travis'. The local cops are villainous. There is a trio of redneck heavies that -- well, they shouldn't look out of place but they do. This was shot in South Carolina, but it's winter, and it doesn't look like the South, whereas these three unkempt miscreants (including Ed Sauter with his working-class New York accent) look like they're straight out of some Southern Gothic slasher movie -- I EAT YOUR HEAD AND SPIT DOWN YOUR NECK CAVITY!!! One is fat, one is scrawny, all are dumb drunks who tote shotguns and pitchforks and allow themselves to be run over by tractors. They even have one of those mean mothers in Bibb overalls and boots who sneers at captive Burt and says, "Wait'll Lem gets back. He'll take care of you proper-like," or something.

There isn't a touch of anything original in the direction, the script, the performances, or anything else. Dave Grusin's score is loud and conventional -- lots of electric guitars and harmonicas and nerve-jangling percussion.

Nobody seems to have put any effort into it, which is a little surprising, given Burt Lancaster's tendency to see to it that some social message informs his story, or at least that there is the occasional arty touch. But not here. Everything is functional. No tag lines worth remembering. Instead of Burt Lancaster it might as well have been Charles Bronson.

Yet I like the thing and I look forward to seeing it on those infrequent occasions when it shows up on TV. I don't know why. I guess the location shooting captures a particular time and place rather well, though for a college in session it looks really underpopulated. I like Burt as a nobody watchman instead of an important muck-a-muck in the justice system. He looks so terribly humble in that shabby uniform. And I kind of like its lack of pretension. Better a crime thriller that knows its limits than a failed attempt at significance.

Towards the end of his life and film career, Burt Lancaster, created some of the best and most enduring characters in the movies. His 'Twilight Last Gleeming and 'Lawman' are a couple of the more notable ones. This film, "The Mid-Night Man" has got to join that long list as one of the very best. The film is straight forward, the murder of a beautiful and seductive college coed, the long suspicious list of suspects and the unsavory secrets which accompany them. Also the county sheriff, needs to known the reason, why a campus security guard, a man on parole, and former homicide detective doesn't think, the pervert janitor didn't do it. Were it not for the serious cast which include some of the best character actors in the business, this movie would have been just so so. Fortunately, the cast includes Susan Clark as Linda Thorpe, Cameron Mitchell as Quartz, Morgan Woodward as Senator Clayborne and Harris Yulin as Sheriff Casey. Nick Cravat and Lancaster' own son completes the memorable list. With Ed Lauter rounding out the cast, this film cannot go anywhere except to the top of Lancaster Classics. Highly recommended. ****