IMDb RATING
6.6/10
1.5K
YOUR RATING
A trumpet player in a radio orchestra falls asleep during a commercial and dreams he's Athanael, an angel deputized to blow the Last Trumpet at exactly midnight on Earth, thus marking the en... Read allA trumpet player in a radio orchestra falls asleep during a commercial and dreams he's Athanael, an angel deputized to blow the Last Trumpet at exactly midnight on Earth, thus marking the end of the world.A trumpet player in a radio orchestra falls asleep during a commercial and dreams he's Athanael, an angel deputized to blow the Last Trumpet at exactly midnight on Earth, thus marking the end of the world.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Robert Blake
- Junior Poplinski
- (as Bobby Blake)
Sailor Vincent
- Clerk
- (scenes deleted)
Betty Alexander
- Angel
- (uncredited)
Murray Alper
- Tony - the Hotel Bell Captain
- (uncredited)
Jimmy Ames
- Tarzola - the Rocket Man
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFor the rest of his career Jack Benny used the failure of this movie as one of his best jokes.
- GoofsWhen Fran Blackstone grabs hold of the rooftop wall in order to climb atop and jump, the entire wall wobbles under her weight.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Projectionist (1970)
- SoundtracksSwing Low, Sweet Chariot
(prior to 1862) (uncredited)
Written by Wallis Willis
Swing version played when Athaneal sits in with the band
Featured review
Those Happy Days of Victory
I saw this one New Year's night on TV when I was about eleven. The second time I saw it was last night when it was on cable. It was true to my memory. Jack Benny WAS stuck in a giant coffee cup and it WAS an extremely funny movie. The coffee cup gag is one of the most surreal things I've ever seen in a movie from Hollywood's golden age. Imagine a Tex Avery cartoon done in live action and you'll get an idea of the visual. Jack Benny really does look as if he's being filmed in a mechanized coffee cup/coffee pot/coffee spoon structure. It's incredible. Harold Lloyd would have been hard-pressed to match this scene. This scene itself makes this movie well worth watching. The mood of the movie is happy and bouncy as only movies made between 1945 and 1949 are. There must have been some optimism informing Hollywood's imagination as the Second World War wound down. Movies between then and the beginning of the Korean War practically burst with a sense of victory. THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT works as a testimony to a time when America felt itself riding on top of the world. There are other sight gags taking advantage of vertiginous views. People dangle from the ledge of buildings throughout. This is directed by the man who directed HIGH SIERRA, THE ROARING TWENTIES and a few other classics. The dialogue is very much like radio comedy. Jack Benny was, of course, a radio comic. The scene in the diner would have played quite well, if not even a bit better, on radio. I find it significant that a few years after this movie came out, Benny performed in a radio version of it. Others have commented on the fact that he turned this movie's relative box-office failure into a running joke which lasted the rest of his career. Benny's shtick demanded that he exaggerate negative qualities: He deliberately played violin off-key to highlight his radio persona's vanity; He pretended to feud with Fred Allen, when in reality there was no hostility between them. Both comedians boosted their ratings with their supposed feud. He was only playing his part by making people think THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT was the cinematic equivalent of his violin-playing. Not only was it up to Hollywood's standard comedic levels of that time, it surpassed them. Perhaps my familiarity with old-time radio makes me more partial to this movie than the average viewer. I am surprised, nevertheless, that many people find THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT a little pointless. The visuals are amazing, the dialogue is snappy and the music is great. You'll hear a tune which sounds a bit like the Looney Tunes theme. There's a reason for this. Carl Stalling was one of the people who worked on the music, and he worked on many Warner Brothers cartoons. If you like comedy you'll enjoy this movie.
helpful•232
- thurberdrawing
- Oct 22, 2006
- How long is The Horn Blows at Midnight?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Un toque de trompeta a medianoche
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,831,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
By what name was The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945) officially released in India in English?
Answer