The team that brought you Marty, writer Paddy Chayefsky and director Delbert Mann brought Middle Of The Night to the big screen. It was first an original drama for television with E.G. Marshall and Eva Marie Saint for the Philco Playhouse. It then went to Broadway where it ran 477 performances in 1956-57 and starred Edward G. Robinson and Gena Rowlands with Joshua Logan directing.
Delbert Mann who did direct the original television play returns for the screen version and Paddy Chayefsky considerably expanded his play to accommodate for the screen. That was probably a most wise move by the producers.
The story is a March/September romance between Kim Novak, a young divorcée and widower Fredric March who seems to have settled down to a dull existence with work and his children's problems. Kim's a troubled girl herself, having been hurt a few times by men her own age maybe looking for a bit of stability which she sees in March.
March met certain criticism that he was not ethnic enough to play a middle aged Jewish businessman in the garment trade. But March overcomes the objections with talent honed over 40 years at that point. In fact he'd played an Italian father in one of the stories in It's A Big Country and done that well.
There's a really nice performance from Albert Dekker as a salesman in March's firm who makes no secret of his flagrant abuses of his marriage vows when on the road trying to sell. The character is more than borrowed from Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death Of A Salesman which March starred in on the screen.
It's a good film with a bad message, in fact I'm not sure what Chayefsky is trying to say. Basically it seems that he's saying get that trophy wife you rich old dudes and bear the problems that come with it. Novak causes March a good deal of headaches and if he marries her it's with the full realization a lot of heartaches are going to come with it. She's a lusty young girl with needs more than security and he's getting on in years. Need I say more.
Better March start dealing with a reputable escort agency.
Delbert Mann who did direct the original television play returns for the screen version and Paddy Chayefsky considerably expanded his play to accommodate for the screen. That was probably a most wise move by the producers.
The story is a March/September romance between Kim Novak, a young divorcée and widower Fredric March who seems to have settled down to a dull existence with work and his children's problems. Kim's a troubled girl herself, having been hurt a few times by men her own age maybe looking for a bit of stability which she sees in March.
March met certain criticism that he was not ethnic enough to play a middle aged Jewish businessman in the garment trade. But March overcomes the objections with talent honed over 40 years at that point. In fact he'd played an Italian father in one of the stories in It's A Big Country and done that well.
There's a really nice performance from Albert Dekker as a salesman in March's firm who makes no secret of his flagrant abuses of his marriage vows when on the road trying to sell. The character is more than borrowed from Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death Of A Salesman which March starred in on the screen.
It's a good film with a bad message, in fact I'm not sure what Chayefsky is trying to say. Basically it seems that he's saying get that trophy wife you rich old dudes and bear the problems that come with it. Novak causes March a good deal of headaches and if he marries her it's with the full realization a lot of heartaches are going to come with it. She's a lusty young girl with needs more than security and he's getting on in years. Need I say more.
Better March start dealing with a reputable escort agency.