User reviews

Colin Clive is one obsessed man. Insanely jealous of wife Jean Arthur's imaginary lovers, he still won't let her go in divorce. Before Arthur's got a real one in head waiter Charles Boyer.

History Is Made At Night is another one of Frank Borzage's romantic films with tender lovers and lots of soft focus cinematography. A common thread that seems to run in Borzage's films is forces that threaten to keep intended folks apart. This is true in Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm where it is the political situation in Germany of the twenties and thirties respectively. In History Is Made At Night, what keeps them apart is Boyer's conscience.

Colin Clive as the husband is a multimillion dollar owner of transoceanic ship line who sets a trap trying to catch Arthur in a compromising position. When total stranger Boyer walks in and breaks up the trap and hits Clive's chauffeur a few times, Clive being the obsessed fellow he is, kills the chauffeur and says a burglar did it.

Of course Boyer thinks he did it and when he finds out the Paris police are looking for him, he and Arthur go back to Paris from New York where they have run away to. They have the bad luck to be on one of Clive's ships where from a distance he controls the fate of all.

Boyer and Arthur make a beautiful couple in love. However a biography of Jean Arthur assures us there was nothing to anything about that.

This was also Colin Clive's farewell film. Sadly he died a few months after this film was out. Known primarily for being Baron Frankenstein, creator of the undead, he was so much more than that as this film aptly demonstrates.

We also can't forget Leo Carrillo who plays chef Caesar who aids and abets Boyer and Arthur's romance. Carrillo was a guy who always added something to any film he was in.

If tender romance and ship board excitement are your thing than History Is Made At Night is your film indeed.

This is one of my all-time favorite films, partly because it stars Jean Arthur, one of my all- time favorite actresses, has Boyer's charm, and is beautifully directed and produced. An artistic achievement of its day.

Poor Jean Arthur, trying to get loose from a really ruthless, jealous soon-to-be ex, is set up in her Paris hotel room by husband who has hired a gigolo to sneak in. Boyer, on the balcony, gets wind of it and spoils it and steals her away. They wind up at his place of work, a elegant Paris restaurant, and they dance, dine, laugh, and begin to fall in love. But when she returns to the hotel, it seems the hired gigolo is dead, and her husband coerces her back, threatening scandal, making her give up the divorce final.

Broken-hearted, Boyer and his chef friend go to America to try to find the lady, but cannot, so decide to go to work at an upscale café where Boyer hopes she may patronize. She does and they reunite and the cruel almost-ex-husband, who is a very wealthy shipower and builder, fixes it so Boyer is about to get arrested for the Paris murder. Jean and Boyer try to return to Paris on board a new ship of her husband's and he orders the captain to go full speed into a dense fog...and, well, it is suspenseful and frightening and wonderful. It plays up the speed competitions of the great Ocean Liners, the luxuries and yet dangers of this mode of travel. I learned all I know of Ocean Liners of the time thru movies like this, Love Affair, and Now Voyager, etc, because I would never have the opportunity to sail on one myself. Movies were always a great source of learning to me! But this film is especially entertaining, even though Jean Arthur is playing a straight romantic drama this time. Boyer never disappoints. I count this as another of the late 1930's golden crop of finest all-time films...

The obsessive and jealous shipowner Bruce Vail (Colin Clive) does not accept the divorce his wife Irene Vail (Jean Arthur) achieved in London, and he hires his driver Michael Browsky (Ivan Lebedeff) to forge adultery with Irene in Paris to make the decree null. However, she is rescued by the headwaiter Paul Dumond (Charles Boyer), who punches Michael and locks Bruce and his private eyes in a locker, and they spend a wonderful night together in the restaurant Château Bleu, where Paul and his best friend Chef Cesare (Leo Carrillo) work, and they fall in love for each other. Meanwhile, Bruce kills Michael and blackmails Irene, blaming Paul and forcing her to return with him to New York. But Paul does not give up on Irene, and moves to New York with Cesare trying to find her love. They meet each other, but things get complicated when an innocent is arrested accused of murdering the driver.

"History is Made at Night" is a dated melodrama, but extremely romantic. Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer show an amazing chemistry in this delightful romance. The friendship of Cesare and Paul is quite unbelievable in the present days, but gives the funniest moments in this film. Colin Clive performs an obsessive and totally insane villain, with his sick jealousy. But in the end, love wins for the pleasure of the romantic viewers. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A História Começou A Noite" ("The History Has Begun at Night")

Note: On 05 March 2012 I saw this film again.

Film critic Andrew Sarris once said that HISTORY IS MADE A NIGHT is the most romantic title in all of film history, and I'm happy to report that this movie lives up to its reputation. An independent production made by former MGM producer Walter Wanger, the film reputedly cost nearly a million dollars - a huge sum in 1937 - and the money really shows on the screen. Leads Charles Boyar and Jean Arthur have such a wonderful screen chemistry between them that it's surprising that they never made another film together. Director Frank Borzage was a specialist in romantic films and here he adroitly blends romantic drama, comedy and even tragedy into a seemless garment.

The plot is surprisingly complex but unfolds in a logical manner. A theme running throughout the story is mistaken identity and characters relying on mistaken information. Boyar thinks he's killed a man, but we know he didn't. Jean Arthur thinks he's thief, but we know he isn't. Arthur's husband thinks she's cheating on him, but we know she isn't. If you wonder how these and other plot points make any sense, you just have to see this film.

Composer Alfred Newman provided a charming theme for the film and I am surprised that it has never been issued in a modern recording of movie mood music. Leo Carrillo supplied hilarious support as Boyar's friend and the ill-fated Colin Clive gave a haunted, tormented performance as the villain. Clive is remembered today as the first Dr. Frankenstein in the first two of Universal's series, FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). By the time he made this film, a frail-looking Clive was only months away from his own death in June 1937 caused by alcoholism. His performance is all the more poignant as a result.

The film is climaxed by a Titanic-like shipwreck (huge ocean liner on its maiden voyage collides with an iceberg) leading to a final misunderstanding that results in an ironic but satisfying conclusion. The special effects work by James Basevi, while primitive by today's computer graphics standards, is nonetheless impressive. My only complaint is the relatively poor quality of the film print that is available on video today. Considering the fine restoration work that has been done on other films such as HIS GIRL FRIDAY, a restored HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT should be on some company's priority list.

Fairly sharp mixture of comedy, romance and melodrama has an American woman in Paris falling for the charming head-waiter in a posh French restaurant; later, after returning to the States (and to her abusive husband), she chances to meet the dashing Frenchman again. Sparkling first-half is either enhanced or destroyed by heavy drama in the second-act, depending on your viewpoint. However the film affects you, the finale aboard a sinking cruise ship certainly boasts showmanship! I caught this in a romantic mood, so I enjoyed it; any other day of the week, I might've taken a glimpse and passed.

*** from ****

I saw this on a VHS release here in the 1980's and was one of those films years later I could not forget. How could one forget this memorable title with a equally interesting and unusual combination of love, comedy, drama and disaster that in many other circumstances would simply not work! Boyer and Arthur's romantic moments...pure magic as is Boyer and Leo Carillo's comedic turns. Produced to the tune of over a million dollars (a very generous budget for 1937) independently by Walter Wagner the look of this "A" production certainly reflects this. The deft hand of Borzage could only keep the goings on fluent with the seemingly challenging narrative in a film that easily keeps the viewers attention. To my mind one of the highlights of 30's cinema. I urge anyone interested in this era - see this film!! Available on DVD (mine is a South American copy and OK print quality).

Frank Borzage seems to me to be one of the more idiosyncratic directors who worked in Golden Age Hollywood. This is about the third film of his I've seen in recent months and it strikes me that his individualistic mixture of excitement, romance and comedy combined with big epic occurrences will draw me back to sample more of his work.

For this film, to which someone could surely have dreamed up a punchier title, he mixes elements of romantic melodrama, gritty toughness, comedy and disaster movie in a very eclectic way.

Jean Arthur is the posh-frocked New York socialite driven to seek a divorce from her filthy-rich husband, Colin Clive's all-consuming possessiveness and jealousy. He won't allow it of course, taking it as an affront to his masculinity as much as his social standing, so that he engineers a devious ploy while they are staying in a swanky Paris hotel, to blackmail her into dropping her suit by paying his chauffeur to enter her room along with a photographer to catch her in a compromising and divorcable position. The plan goes west however when the suave, handsome hotel head-waiter, played by Charles Boyer, intervenes, rescuing Arthur and laying out the offending chauffeur. When he discovers the failure of his plan, Clive then goes to a hastily improvised Plan B which will see Boyer sought for murder.

From this violent episode, Borzage then changes pace entirely, as Boyer and Arthur fall madly in love, do the town together and introduces an element of humour in the person of Boyer's best mate, the hotel's celebrated chef, Leo Carrillo, who certainly plays up his temperamental Gallic part.

Clive then persuades Arthur to go back to New York with him in return for not involving Boyer in the ensuing murder case but the smitten waiter, with his gastronomic chum in tow, follows them to America. There are more twists and turns but the major development is the return of the loving couple, plus one, to Paris, to help clear the innocent man who is now being set up for the homicide. To do this they board Clive's new ocean liner (I told you he was filthy rich!) giving Clive one last chance to recklessly disrupt Boyer and Arthur's plans, which action leads to a heightened finish evoking memories of the Titanic disaster of 25 years before, as well as resulting in a violent conclusion to Clive's grudge.

The cinematography is let down by some ugly model-work for the climactic scenes involving the ship and there's even one lazy set-up with Boyer and Arthur supposedly walking down a New York street in front of a garishly obvious back projection of fellow-pedestrians. The story is fantastical and the mood-swings of the film are certainly noticeable. Still, if you park your credibility meter, the final outcome is a film which despite its unusual narrative drive, is just about held together by Borzage's overarcing direction and fine star-acting by Boyer and Arthur.

It's just a pity mind you, that that the real Titanic wasn't designed the same way as Clive's "Princess Irene"...

I can't understand why this film isn't more recognized as a superior example of romantic movie-making. The cast is perfect, the cinematography (with one small exception of back projection that was jarring) is excellent, and the direction superb. Throw in a wonderful evocation of Paris (as good as Midnight), a great score and an incredibly moving final ten minutes and you have perfection. Everything comes together in perfect balance, much like Casablanca, and sadly so few other romantic films. I once asked a new acquaintance what his favorite film (he was eighteen at the time). When he responded History is Made at Night, I threw my arms around him and told him he'd won a place in my heart. Three cheers for History is Made at Night, a film that deserves rediscovery.

The "best headwaiter in Europe", Paul Dumond (Charles Boyer), falls in love with American Irene Vail (Jean Arthur), who is in the process of getting a divorce from her husband, ship builder Bruce Vail (Colin Clive). However, Bruce's jealousy threatens to destroy all their lives.

I'm a sucker for romantic films, but History is Made at Night just comes across as silly. The plot drags on for too long, and the finale involving a ship sinking à la the Titanic seems shoehorned in.

Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur are wonderful as the leads, while Leo Carillo gives an excellent supporting performance. Colin Clive, in his penultimate film, is quite good as the possessive husband. Overall, it's entertaining enough.

Frank Borzage was Hollywood's great romantic and History is Made at Midnight is one of his very best films. The luminous chemistry between Charles Boyer and the incomparable Jean Arthur (in one of her very best roles) lights up the screen. Borzage's direction is always delicate, elegant and brings the film a mystical quality from luminous nighttime Paris to the fog swept decks of the SS Princess Irene. The plot is excellent and takes a truly unexpected turn in the final third but it's the character moments like Boyer and Arthur's first night in Paris or their reunion in New York that entrance and linger the most. This was Frankenstein's actor Colin Clive's penultimate film before his untimely death to alcoholism at the mere age of thirty-seven. Made only seven years after his screams of "It's alive!" sent shivers down the halls of cinema history, his role here is far cry from that energetic performance and he is perfect as the lonely, desperate and bitter husband of Jean Arthur as sad as that seems. A true masterpiece that has been criminally neglected and forgotten by the populous and by critics who really should know better.

"Bruce Vail" (Colin Clive) is a shipping magnate who has one major flaw-an obsessive suspicion that his wife "Irene Vail" (Jean Arthur) is cheating on him. This insane jealousy gets so bad that one day she decides to file for a divorce while in Paris. However, because his obsession concerning her is so strong and twisted, he quickly comes up with an evil scheme to nullify the divorce--which only serves to send her into the arms of another man-a headwaiter named "Paul Dumond" (Charles Boyer). What nobody counts on is just how far Bruce will go to stop the divorce. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an enchanting romantic-comedy which still manages to remain fresh and entertaining almost 80 years later after it was produced. Admittedly, I thought the ending was a bit corny but even so the performance by Jean Arthur more than makes up for it. Again, it's an old film but those who enjoy movies of this type will certainly be pleased with this picture. I rate it as above average.

Charles Boyer has never been more charming and Jean Arthur never more beautiful as impromptu lovers Paul and Irene. Colin Clive is brilliant as Irene's madly jealous and obsessive husband Bruce, who unwittingly brings the two lovers together and follows desperate measures to keep them apart. Boyer's and Arthur's tender love scenes make this film one of the greatest unsung screen romances.

This is one of Frank Borzage's greatest films, in its amazing mixture of comedy and drama, tragedy and passion and, like in all his films, the redemption by destiny.

Charles Boyer is, as always, the perfect lover and both supreme and totally convincing as such, while Jean Arthur with her husky voice, trying to get away from the jealous clutches of her cruel husband, is the right girl to fall in his arms, and it happens in such a way (by destiny), that she can but laugh out her husband, who by his intrigues planned the opposite and accidentally opened her real love life.

There are many aspects to this film, and the art of cooking plays an important part with Leo Carrillo more important as the chef than the multimillionaire Colin Clive, the mortally jealous husband, who will stop at nothing to get his wife back and thereby only causes derailments.

At the same time it's a great catastrophe film, both Hindenburg and Titanic are reminded of, but you'll never guess what really happens.

Charles Boyer was definitely one of the greatest lovers in film history, if not the greatest, more convincing as such than even Rudolf Valentino, and you can always rely on his acting. He made some of the greatest of all love films, like "Love Affair" with Irene Dunne (remade many times) and "All This and Heaven Too" with Bette Davis, and this one of Frank Borzage's should not be overlooked in the context, Jean Arthur once more being the right girl in the right place. Their scene at Victor's is one of the great moments of truth in the annals of romantic films.

Jean Arthur, Charles Boyer, Colin Clive, and Leo Carrillo star in the big-budget "History is Made at Night," directed by Frank Borzage and released in 1937.

Arthur plays Irene Vail, who has divorced her wealthy husband Bruce (Colin Clive), but he won't accept it. He hires his driver to fake an adultery situation with Irene while she is in Paris, which voids the divorce.

Before that can happen, a headwaiter, Paul Dumond (Boyer) rescues her by pretending to be a thief and stealing her jewelry. Bruce has arrived to "catch" Irene, but he winds up in the closet, while the chauffeur is knocked out. Paul rushes out with her and returns her jewelry while they drive around Paris.

Paul takes her to a restaurant, Château Bleu, where he works with his good friend Cesar (Carrillo). Paul and Irene fall in love. Unbeknownst to them, Bruce has murdered the chauffeur. He blames Paul and forces Irene to return to New York with him.

Paul travels to New York to try to find her. He and Cesar obtain work in a fancy restaurant. He reserves a table for Irene, knowing she will eventually come there.

This lovely film, beautifully acted by Boyer and Arthur, takes a surprising turn -- well, it was a surprise to me -- that makes for an exciting finale. Of interest, Irene and her husband are set to travel on the Hindenburg, which actually caught on fire and fell from the sky a few months later.

This was Colin Clive's last film, sadly, as he was stricken with pneumonia and died at the age of 37 a few months later. The wonderful Boyer, so suave and with his to-die-for accent, actually didn't seem to have much vanity. He wore a toupee for movies, but all other times, including those when he was out in pubic, he did not. He and Arthur make a sweet couple. Arthur could do drama and comedy equally well.

Romantic and atmospheric - it's so hard to believe that some of these films were made on sets.

Jean Arthur plays a woman married to an insanely jealous rich man (Colin Clive). He is very controlling and dangerous--and, not surprisingly, she leaves him and obtains a divorce. But Clive is not about to let her go and has her stalked by private detectives and plots to get her back. During this time, Arthur meets a very suave man (Charles Boyer) and they fall almost instantly in love. But, Clive isn't about to let her remarry and he murders a man and makes it appear as if his ex-wife's new love is responsible! To keep Boyer from going to jail, she agrees to return to Clive--even though she's miserable and he is just plain nuts...and rather evil. Is there any hope for the lovers? Will the truth ever come out? Now all this sounds like a murder mystery, and this is PART of the film but mostly it's a very stylish romance. The romantic portions of the film are its best--and despite the odd casting of the two as lovers, it does work very well. What doesn't work quite as well is the ending--which is almost like a replication of the Titanic disaster. But, despite the shortcomings, the overall picture is quite charming and well worth your time. Boyer was great in films like this and "Love Affair" and it didn't hurt that Clive played a wonderful slime-ball and Leo Carillo provided some good support. Well worth seeing.

Although it might sound like some lightweight Lubitsch musical comedy, History is Made at Night is actually a drama in which elegant head waiter Charles Boyer is framed on a murder charge after extricating love interest Jean Arthur from a blackmail plot engineered by her wealthy and extremely jealous estranged husband. It's a good movie until the final act, but is undone by weaknesses in the far-fetched plot. Also, the two stars never really click, even though the suave and charming Bowyer is excellent; and that weird bromance between him and top chef Leo Carrillo just feels wrong. On a more positive note, the ill-fated Colin Clive is arrestingly intense in his penultimate film role.

History Is Made At Night (1937) : Brief Review -

Semi-Titanic with a Happy Ending! Frank Borzage's drama is high on deliberate and unhealthy twists, but presents a strong & passionate romance. What if I tell you that James Cameron's iconic Titanic (1997), not that propaganda film Titanic (1943), took a lot of references from Frank Borzage's History Is Made At Night? Wait, don't be shocked. I am not saying it's a complete copy paste or adaptation, but somewhere the idea remains the same with different conflicts and places. A wealthy divorcée falls for a charming Parisian, but her insanely jealous ex-husband will do anything to get her back. In Cameron's grand scale spectacle, we had Rose's fiancee and the entire film takes place on the ship, whereas in Borzage's drama, we have a jealous, separated husband and only the climax part happens on the ship. They even mention it is the biggest sea disaster since the Titanic (1912), and here we have a happy ending instead of a tragic one. Comparisons aside, I think this deserves a special token of honour because it was made much before both the Titanic films. The problematic part is in the middle, where the loss of many logical stats occurs. That murder scene in the beginning was a big disaster already. How can I accept what happens after in the film if the real reason behind the conflicts is not acceptable? Anyway, excluding a couple of big loopholes, I think Borzage has made a fine drama about passionate romance. I liked Charles Boyer in Love Affair (1939) and some films of the 40s for his charming personality, and this film has got exactly that. Jean Arthur had just begun doing good by 1937, so this film was nothing but the honest efforts of a new, emerging talent. Leo Carrillo is funny, while Colin Clive makes you hate him for presenting a jealous and possessive husband in the right manner. Another good film to remember in Frank Borzage's long but inconsistent filmography.

RATING - 6.5/10*

By - #samthebestet.

Colin Clive (Bruce) is a paranoid, jealous, controlling bad-arse to his wife Jean Arthur (Irene). She flees to Paris for a divorce but Clive isn't having it. He pursues her to set her up and catch her in the arms of another man so he can cancel out her divorce request and keep her by his side forever. However, head waiter Charles Boyer (Paul) happens to be around and throws a spanner in the works.

After you watch this film, you think back and realize that a lot has happened! It's a complicated tale but it's manageable to follow taking the audience through romance, murder & disaster a la Titanic.

Unfortunately, the film is a bit sappy in places, especially both sequences where Boyer and Arthur engage is some crass ventriloquism with a grotesque drawing on their hands of a face called "Coco". They talk to Coco as a 3rd person to ask each other about their relationship and it is corny and diabolical. Lose a point for this nonsense.

Colin Clive ups the ante whenever he is on screen, propelling the story with his evil intent and without him, things would be bland. A true villain.