The November Schedule for TCM

[MikeBSG]

I'm sorry, but I've never been able to take the title "History is Made at Night" seriously since 1984, when I saw "Buckaroo Banzai."

In the movie, the mad scientist (played by John Lithgow) gives a ranting/raving speech to a bunch of unmotivated alien invaders.

"History is made at night!" he proclaims in his best faux-Mussolini way. "Character is who you are in the dark!"

I'm sure "History is Made at Night" is a good movie. It just has this association with me.

[JackFavell]

Hey! I loved Buckaroo Banzai! I wonder how it would play for me now.

[moira finnie]

Moira, unfortunately the print of HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT shown on TCM was only fair, and an atmospheric film like this needs the lighting effects the director and cinematographer wanted. In general, I liked the scenes with Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur together and was less happy about the others. The mixture of romantic comedy and melodrama did not work well for me, but then I feel the same way about the mix of comedy and drama in THE APARTMENT. Actually, HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT felt like a Billy Wilder film. The whole scene at Le Chateau Bleu, with the musicians and the chef returning, etc., played out exactly like Wilder; Leo Carillo’s part is pure Wilder, gag for gag and facial expression for facial expression. No, Wilder didn’t contribute to the script—I checked imdb—and this a few years before he directed his first American film. Curious.

The scene with Boyer and Arthur talking about their childhoods as the voices sing “Nearer, My God to Thee” ought to have been way over the top, but I liked it. Borzage can get away with some effects that would be grossly sentimental in other hands because of his commitment to the romantic couple.

Yeah, Kingrat, HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT is quirky as hell and some scenes work better than others. Reportedly producer Walter Wanger kept coming in with new script changes each day (he was the one who threw in the iceberg!). I actually think that Lubitsch and Rene Clair were more of an influence on the story's picaresque qualities and the peripheral characters than Wilder (who owed a big debt to Lubitsch). I know what you mean about that scene with Boyer and Arthur as the ship is apparently sinking--only Borzage would have the chutzpah and the grace to pull it off (the chemistry between Boyer & Arthur didn't hurt either).

I have one other odd feeling for this movie--one of the saddest moments in the story was the tragedy written on the face of Colin Clive's character (and the poor actor, who would die before it was released). The steamship titan knows he is unloved and unlovable. He is so alone. I found myself thinking about what Jean Arthur naively thought when she agreed to marry him: "I'll make him happy. I'll teach him how to relax and enjoy life and eventually, I'll learn to love him and he'll love me too." Though this mismatched couple were an extreme melodramatic example, I suspect that more people tell themselves this kind of thing before they get married than we know. I find that there are often characters like this in Borzage's movies: the Alan Hale character in LIttle Man, What Now?, Robert Young in The Mortal Storm, the mother played by Hedwiga Reicher in Lucky Star, Arthur Hohl in Man's Castle, and I could go on. They are often intelligent people who go shivering through life without ever truly feeling the warmth of love. Their starved spirit leads them to try to force love from others or to manipulate other people. Even though they are villainous on one level, Borzage never completely allowed the audience to feel superior or to loathe them. Having read a bit about the director's own sometimes turbulent life, I wonder if the compassion he showed such characters reflected his own understanding about human nature and his own experience?

Hey Mike, put me down as another Buckaroo Banzai fan--at least in the '80s.

[JackFavell]

Moira,

I really like the scene where Jean Arthur tells Clive that he was the one who literally threw her into the arms of another man. It's very sad because it's true, and Clive can't even comprehend it, but in the end he finally knows he's derailed his life, his only chance at happiness. Arthur is spot on in this scene, her emotion feels very true, as she sees the irony. Clive is so good in this swan song, I always feel bad for him, how deluded he is and how caught by his obsession. He's horribly twisted and cruel, but he also can't ever find even an iota of the happiness that Arthur and Boyer have already shared and will continue to share.

I see a real connection between his character and the mother in Lucky Star, Robert Young and Arthur Hohl. Thanks for mentioning it, I could never have brought that connection to the surface, though I felt the way you describe about all of them, especially Robert Young in The Mortal Storm.

I always wonder whether Clive was as unhappy as his character when he died. Somehow it adds to the mystique of the movie knowing that he died only a short time after it was made.