History Is Made at Night (1937 film)

History Is Made at Night is a 1937 American romantic comedy drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Jean Arthur, Charles Boyer and Colin Clive. It was distributed by United Artists.

History Is Made at Night
Film poster
Directed by	Frank Borzage
Written by	C. Graham Baker
Screenplay by	Gene Towne Vincent Lawrence David Hertz
Produced by	Walter Wanger
Starring	Charles Boyer Jean Arthur Leo Carrillo Colin Clive
Cinematography	David Abel
Edited by	Margaret Clancey
Music by	Alfred Newman
Production company	Walter Wanger Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	March 27, 1937 (1937-03-27) (New York City)[1]
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$821,791[2]
Box office	$948,500[2]

The film has been noted for its blending of genres, including comedy, drama and romance, as well as its inclusion of elements of suspense and disaster films in its final act.^[3][4]

Plot

Irene Vail decides to divorce her husband, the rich ship owner Bruce Vail. However, Bruce learns that he can prevent the divorce if he can provide evidence that she has been involved with another man. He pays his driver Michael to visit Irene's hotel room in Paris and pretend to be her lover so that a private detective can catch them in a compromising position. However, a man overhears Irene's startled cry upon finding Michael in her room, and a struggle ensues when the man defends Irene, leaving Michael on the floor, unconscious. When Bruce and the detective burst into the room, the man threatens them with a gun, demands Irene's jewelry and takes Irene hostage.

Once they are away, the intruder, Paul Dumond, returns Irene's jewelry and invites her to dine with him at the Château Bleu restaurant, where he works as a waiter. They dance and Irene falls in love with him. In the morning, Irene returns to find Vail and the police in her room, as Michael is dead. Vail leads her to believe that Paul is responsible for the murder and blackmails her into coming back to the United States with him in exchange for Paul's freedom. Distraught that he is unable to find Irene, Paul learns that Irene has reunited with her husband and left for the U.S. Sensing something is wrong, he embarks for the U.S. to find her, accompanied by Cesare, his good friend and head chef of Château Bleu.

In Manhattan, Paul and Cesare rehabilitate a restaurant, hoping that it will attract Irene. The reunion takes place at last, but Paul learns that Michael is dead and that a man has been arrested in Paris for the murder. Unwilling to let an innocent man pay for what he thinks is his crime, Paul embarks for Paris, and Irene joins him. They travel on the liner Princess Irene, which is owned by Vail and named after her.

Vail learns that they are on the ship. In a rage, he orders the captain to travel at full speed, despite the danger of collision with an iceberg, claiming a desire to break the record for fastest crossing. Vail actually hopes that the ship will sink, killing Paul and Irene. The ship does strike an iceberg, and premature news reports state that the ship has sunk with tremendous loss of life. Consumed by guilt, Vail commits suicide and confesses to killing Michael in a note. However, the ship's bulkhead doors contain the water and prevent the ship from sinking. Paul, Irene and the other passengers rejoice when they hear that they are to be rescued.

Cast

• Charles Boyer as Paul Dumond
• Jean Arthur as Irene Vail
• Leo Carrillo as Cesare
• Colin Clive as Bruce Vail
• Ivan Lebedeff as Michael, Vail's Chauffeur
• George Meeker as Mr. Norton
• Lucien Prival as Private Detective
• George Davis as Maestro
• Pierre Watkin as Commodore Eldridge
• Byron Foulger as Vail Employee Reading from Newspaper
• Tom Ricketts as Old Man Getting in Lifeboat
• Señor Wences as "Coco" Hand Trick Performer

Production

Director Frank Borzage's attachment to the project was announced in July 1936.^[5] Filming began on November 4, 1936 and was completed on December 31, 1936.^[6]

Release

History Is Made at Night was released in New York City on March 27, 1937.^[7] In Los Angeles, the film opened at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and Loew's State Theatre on April 7, 1937.^[8]

The film returned a profit of $17,450.^[2]

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent called the film "as unreasonably likeable a film as we have chuckled over and snorted at this season" and wrote:

[E]ven a cursory inspection shows that this romance ... contains more false premises than a Bowery voting list and unconcernedly develops them in whatever style happened to occur to the writers at the moment. As a literary exercise, it is nothing short of multidexterous [sic]: farce with one hand, melodrama with the next, comedy with a third, tragedy a fourth. We have no idea what the average would be. Only an extremely clever cast could have kept the story within credible limits. And that is the picture's saving virtue; it has an ingratiating group of players, each carrying out his assignment to the letter.^[9]

Reviewer Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "It gets better playing than it deserves. You grow interested, darn it, in Boyer and Miss Arthur; they look genuine and perform slickly; they lend 'class.'"^[8]

Home media

History Is Made at Night was released on VHS by Vestron Video's Lightning Video sublabel in 1985 and by Warner Home Video in 1993.^[10] It was released on Blu-ray and DVD by the Criterion Collection on April 13, 2021.^[11]