Midnight Mary (1933) User Reviews

William Wellman Pre-Code

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 25 March 2009]

A ravishingly beautiful 20-year-old Loretta Young is "Midnight Mary" in this 1933 melodrama directed by William Wellman. The film also stars Ricardo Cortez, Franchot Tone, and Una Merkel. Young, on trial for murder of Cortez character, a gangster, is waiting for the jury to come in. She tells her story in flashback. Down on her luck, recently out of prison, she meets Cortez, becomes his girl and gets the easy life. One night, during a shooting, the wealthy Tone helps her escape. After she receives secretarial training, he gets her a job in his law firm. But her past catches up with her.

Loretta Young is stunning and her clothes are fantastic. She gives a very good performance. Since it's a pre-code drama, there's talk of sex, suggestive scenes, and the women get slapped around.

Very entertaining and absorbing, with Young a class act all the way.

Essential pre-code viewing

[goblinhairedguy · 8/10 · 1 June 2004]

This is a seldom-discussed but highly significant title in the pre-code canon, as it delineates the compromises a pretty and (originally) moral young woman must make to extricate herself from poverty during the depression. Overall, it's a predictable melodrama, very typical of its period, and the fact that Wild Bill Wellman was for some reason working at MGM for this one tends to stultify the brashness that was his trademark in his early years at Warners. Nonetheless, the tricky editing is very Warners-like and keeps the story moving at a rapid pace, particularly in the jaw-dropping montage where the eponymous character loses her virginity. Most importantly, the script is very frank about sex and absolutely cynical about American society at the time. The most notorious scene is all innuendo -- in order to distract her gangster paramour, Mary inaudibly whispers in his ear, obviously relating in quite some detail the pleasures she will endow him with if only he comes to bed with her immediately. Loretta Young is luminous as always and Ricardo Cortez has a nice time with his role as a confident hoodlum who knows he has her on a string. As for Franchot Tone and Grady Sutton...

Loretta was Never Lovlier

[stoneyburke · 8/10 · 13 June 2006]

This Review is worth an 11 for the gowns, 8 for the rest. Loretta in Adrian's clothes was a knockout...I have seen this movie twice on that wonderful TCM and that beaded skullcap hat still makes me marvel...it takes a pretty face to pull that one off. Story is interesting enough but the actors were really perfect for this big little movie. Ricardo Cortez was at his sexy handsome smarmiest..Franchot Tone was at his great kind, rich and wimpiest and sweet Loretta held the whole shebang together and I cannot imagine anyone thinking/saying she wasn't right for the part. Plus, if clothes make the man then clothes really make the woman... Now about the story...Loretta of got a few bum raps along the way, love, etc., but wait, just spend 75 minutes and judge for yourself.

Excellent Pre-Code Drama

[fsilva · 9 April 2006]

Wow! What a movie! Definitely one of the best Pre-Codes I've seen. Swiftly paced, perfectly edited, with Loretta Young at her most beautiful and giving one of her most believable and honest performances.

After seeing many of Loretta's films from the early 1930s, now I think that she gave her best performances in this period of time. There is a quality of freshness and naturalness, that gives much more truth to Loretta's portrayals in the early 1930s than to her interpretations of the late 1930s and 1940s, with few exceptions. Besides, those huge, beautiful eyes of hers, that smile, those apple cheeks, that slender figure so perfect for those early 1930s gowns, never looked better than in this period.

Here she impersonates a doomed girl, who's known all the ugly aspects of life; the film begins when she's being tried for murder. The movie is told via-flashbacks and depicts how she got into this situation. It's so strange that this picture was produced by MGM; it could have been perfectly done at Warner Brothers. Well, the director, William Wellman, had been making lots of films on the Warner lot (Loretta as well), so he must have put much of the Warner's "Touch" and "mood" into it, perfectly blending it with MGM's gloss and top production values.

Ricardo Cortez is excellent as the "aparently" suave gangster in love with Loretta and Franchot Tone is aptly cast as a society lawyer who falls for her. An excellent cast of supporting actors include Una Merkel, Warren Hymer, Martha Sleeper and those usual reliable butlers: Robert Greig and Halliwell Hobbes.

I found this film so entertaining, so timeless, so modern in many ways. Pre-Code Fans don't dare to miss it!

That Bunny is some friend!

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 27 April 2017]

The film starts at the end. Mary Martin (Loretta Young) is on trial for murder. She seems resigned to her fate, browsing through a magazine during final arguments. When the jury goes out the clerk of the court offers to let her wait out the jury in his office. He's a kind gentle old fellow and mentions he has done this job for almost 38 years. Mary starts looking at the covers of the record books on the shelves and remembering how she had gotten to the place she was - sitting in a chair waiting to see if she is going to get "The" chair. What follows is a flashback of a girl who had very bad luck and a bad companion - Bunny (Una Merkel)who, when she tries to steal some jewelry, lets Mary take the rap even though Mary knew nothing about it. Mary gets three years in juvenile hall, and when she gets out at 16, she and Bunny get mixed up with Leo (Ricardo Cortez) and company, a couple of racketeers.

Mary gets away from them for awhile and tries to find a decent job, but the doors are all shut for her. Now this had me puzzled. The movie was made in 1933, but this is supposed to be the 1920's when times were good. I guess WB thought audiences could relate to Mary better if she was having a bad economic time of it like everybody else in 1933. Wellman uses his silent movie techniques to sum up the despair of job-hunters in the Great Depression via a succession of large neon billboards, where the wording constantly changes from the name of the product being advertised and each sign instead proclaims "No help wanted" or "No jobs today".

At any rate, starving, she goes back to the gang and to Leo, only to part with them again when a speak easy robbery goes bad and a cop is shot.

She is rescued from the scene by wealthy Tom (Franchot Tone). He helps her get a decent job by underwriting her secretarial school and then putting her to work in his law firm. Tom never knew about the robbery and the shot cop, and then one day Mary's past catches up to her unexpectedly and she has to make Tom believe she never cared about him because she does not want him mixed up in a scandal. When she gets out of jail she goes back to Leo, still staying away from Tom to keep him out of trouble. Where this goes and who she kills and why she kills I'll leave for you to watch and find out.

And this is where we came in. Mary halfway acts like she would like to get the death sentence. If you want to see what does happen - and it is a real Hollywood style ending, then watch and see. Actually, I thought Ricardo Cortez was better than Loretta Young here. He has this smooth exterior but you just keep waiting for him to boil over into pure anger at any given moment. Loretta Young did a good job, but her role didn't give her a chance to surprise you with her range or anything like that. Franchot sprinkles his nice guy persona with plenty humor, and the whole cast sprinkles the entire production with frank talk of sex that you won't see after the code.

Fast and well done all around...lifts just above excellent routine pre-code dramas

[secondtake · 7/10 · 6 June 2012]

Midnight Mary (1933)

Wow, you'll never see so many wipe transitions from one scene to the next, which is a big part of how this great little movie moves and moves. Loretta Young is terrific in a common role for the time--a woman who is good at heart getgin in trouble through circumstance and a little too much trust, or plain old willingness. She is surrounded by a mixed and twirling (and large) cast of secondary characters, a couple of them well known such as leading male Franchot Tone.

William Wellman is a director known most of all for being professional. He has no signature style, and unlike say William Wyler or Michael Curtiz, also accused of being professionally style-less, he has no truly amazing films to his name. But boy does have have a dozen really excellent ones. And few duds. In fact, one reason I went out of my way to see this, at a neighbor's house who gets TCM, is because of Wellman.

And also because of Young, who was a starlet and a beauty in her time. If she lacked some on screen spark to make her a superstar, she still had a lovable, solid, convincing presence every time. In a way, she was perfect for Wellman. Tone, in his come and go role, is fine, as is the quirky Andy Devine (the guy with the hoarse, high voice).

Another reason to see this is the freshness it has as a pre-code film. There is a natural acceptance of couples living together (and presumably sleeping together) that is not a salacious part of the film but just makes it true--or at least less artificial. It's a great aspect to many of this era's movies, in some ways my favorite era of all the 1930s, as great as the later and purposely artificial screwball comedies truly are.

What will hold this back at all for some viewers is a lack of total polish and storytelling finesse (filming and editing, as well as writing). It isn't that films in 1933 were always plagued by small flaws like these, but even the masterpieces of the time feel a little raw in spots. This is a charm, a benefit, if you look at it that way. Don't expect "Casablanca" or even "It Happened One Night" (from the next year) and you'll really enjoy this. The plot is familiar, the acting routine, the lighting bright (high key). But it's really fun and well done and a fast ride. Do it.

Strong film with Loretta Young

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 21 May 2012]

There are two things to tell a potential viewer about this film. First, it's pre-code, so there are some racy scenes here...at least racy for the time. Second, this is an old-fashioned morality tale, and of course that means that the young woman (Loretta Young) will pay in the end! The story begins in a courtroom with Mary on trial for murder, seemingly bored by the whole procedure. She waits for the verdict in a room with law books, each labeled with a year -- a clever way to work through numerous flashbacks explaining how she got to where she is. Orphaned, she is falsely accused of shoplifting and sent to a reform school. She and her friend (Una Merkel) unwittingly get in with a couple of armed robbers. She tries to go straight but can't find work (after all, it is the Great Depression), so she return to the crook and becomes his mistress and partner in crime.

Then, things seem to be turning her way. She meets and falls in love with a society lawyer (Franchot Tone), who rehabilitates her by putting her through stenographers school and then giving her a job. But the gang catches up with her eventually, and to save Tone's life she kills the mob boss that is in love with her, for which she goes to trail. Just as she is about to be convicted, Tone arrives to reopen her case with new evidence -- his own. And at the end of the film we are left with the hope that the second trial will go in her favor...which never would have happened post-code.

Perhaps the most interesting casting in this film is that of Andy Devine, who wears a tuxedo throughout the entire film! But still has that Hee Haw voice.

This is a good film worth watching. Gangsterish, but the central theme is that love conquers all. And oh those beautiful eyes of Loretta Young!

Sparkling and Compelling

[movingpicturegal · 9/10 · 15 June 2006]

Interesting drama about a young woman named Mary Martin (played by Loretta Young), on trial for murder, who awaits her verdict and remembers back to her past leading up to this crime. From childhood rummaging through garbage at the dump, to being placed in a "house of correction" as a teenager when she is unjustly accused of stealing a pocketbook, to unknowingly playing lookout for a bunch of crooks pulling a job, Mary really is a good girl - she's just had a life that went from one bad break to another, it seems. Unable to find a real job, she ends up a gangster's moll and, along with his gang of hoodlums, she's now dressing to the nines in satin gown, skullcap, and fur coat and assisting them with crimes - but when she meets a handsome, rich playboy (Franchot Tone) one night while out on a "job" with her gang, she asks him to help her get away from this life of crime.

This film is really interesting, well-edited and fast-paced, with compelling story that completely held my interest, and a really great performance by Loretta Young who really makes this film. Una Merkel adds to the mix as Mary's gal pal Bun, and Andy Devine is fun as Franchot Tone's goofy sidekick. Franchot Tone, by the way, looks extremely handsome in this with top hat, white tie, and tails (oh, my), Loretta Young is very beautiful, as usual, and there is just tons of chemistry between the two of them in their romantic scenes. Watch for those kisses - wow!

Full of lots of old fashioned melodrama, but the film is quite entertaining

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 13 December 2007]

This film is done in an old fashioned style that doesn't play so well for modern audiences who aren't familiar with the style of early 30s "Pre-Code" films. Since I am a huge fan of older films (much more than modern ones), I could forgive all the melodrama and improbabilities that occur in the film--it was the style of the day.

The film begins with Loretta Young on trial. Oddly, she refuses to do anything to defend herself and the film soon goes to a flashback of her life. Oddly, director Wellman decided to use Loretta and Una Merkel for some of the early scenes--where they were both supposed to be only 9 years-old! He used large props and changed their dress and hair styles, but they looked a heck of a lot older than 9! In the teenage portion, Loretta was able to pull this off much better since she was still rather youthful when she made this movie.

All these early snippets help to show how Loretta gravitated towards a life of crime even though, in some ways, she was a nice girl. When the film moves forward to the late 1920s, the movie slows its pace and instead of brief snippets we follow her as she joins up with a gang headed by tough guy Ricardo Cortez. Here, she is reunited with Merkel--who is quite the floozy--a big departure compared to ladies she played in most other films. Aside from allowing herself to be slapped around, Una also apparently loves premarital sex, as she later gets pregnant. They never say where the kid came from, but I assume it wasn't an immaculate conception! With this and some of the other violence in the film, it's obvious that this Pre-Code film is indeed typical of the racier style of films of the early 30s--something that would be banned starting just a year later with the new and tougher Production Code.

Along the way, Loretta meets up with the rich and very nice Franchot Tone. However, Loretta realizes that her checkered past will kill Tone's career as a lawyer, so she quiet disappears--turning herself into the police for her part in a robbery. When she gets out of jail, she deliberately avoids Tone and goes back to the brutal and nasty Cortez--all because she loves Tone too much to mess up his life.

Exactly where it goes from there and how it all ends up in court is very entertaining, but I don't want to spoil the surprises. Despite being a tad old fashioned, the Pre-Code morality also makes the film pretty exciting, as most people don't realize how wicked these old films were (they were definitely NOT prudes like we like to think they were). A busy but highly entertaining script, decent performances and excellent direction--this is worth a look.

Pre-code Bliss!

[sunlily · 10/10 · 20 November 2005]

Midnight Mary is pre-code bliss par excellence! Loretta Young stars as a down on her luck young woman who finds herself in situations that she never would've found herself in later in her career! From the opening courtroom scenes where Mary finds herself reminiscing about her past, we are taken on a roller coaster ride through the years to find out how she came to be where she is now! Mary isn't a bad girl, she's just had a lot of bad luck and made unfortunate choices in consequence.

Loretta has tons of chemistry with her co-stars Ricardo Cortez (yummy) and wise-cracking, adorable Una Merkel, who has a really great philosophical drunk scene in the movie! There are many scenes that wouldn't have made it past the censors later on, such as the one at the kitchen table where Loretta and Franchot Tone discuss a subject that's on a lot of people's minds a lot of the time. And towards the end of the movie, there's a scene with Mary trying to seduce Leo, who responds by licking her fingers as she strokes his face.

This is a great little morality play and a comment on the hard times encountered during the Depression Era, when many people were forced into hard choices they might never have made otherwise.

All the cast is great, including Franchot Tone as the suave lawyer who befriends and saves Mary and Andy Devine as his loud-mouthed friend who's along for the ride.

Midnight Mary really is Pre-Code Bliss!

Just an Old Fashioned Melodrama

[kidboots · 7/10 · 1 December 2009]

I am also surprised, reading the high praise reaped on this film from the other reviewers. Sure, I quite liked the film, but "jaw droppingly awesome" no no no!!! I'd reserve comments like that for Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis - not Loretta Young, for crying out loud!!! Critics were not impressed with the movie either, but it was hugely popular as the movie public flocked to see Loretta's fall, suffering and redemption. There is no denying Loretta Young's beauty. From what I have read it was the first time she was given a character with a bit of depth and she really proved herself. Definitely her expressive eyes were made the most of - the first shot of her reading "Cosmopolitan" her eyes showed her feelings - she is confidant she will get off, then as the film reverts to a flashback, her eyes express fright as she is sent to a juvenile detention centre.

Mary is on trial for murder and as she waits for the jury and talks to the kindly clerk (Charley Grapewin) - she relives her life. Her mother dies, then she is caught shop-lifting (she is just an innocent bystander, but that doesn't stop the judge sending her up for 3 years). On her release she is ready for excitement and along with her friend Bunny (Una Merkel) falls in with racketeer, Leo Darcy (dishy Ricardo Cortez). Again nothing "naughty" seems to happen to give the film a "pre-code" status - even Mary's dresses are not revealing. The only suggestive scene is when Bunny reveals her pregnancy and Mary says "he'll just have to marry you then" and when Mary is trying on fur coats. There is also some violence towards women as well.

Mary seems keen to accept all the good things in life that Leo can provide but when a policeman is shot she has to face reality. She is caught and goes to jail rather than rat on her friends. When she is released she is determined to earn her living in an honest way. She becomes a secretary and, of course, falls for her boss, Tom Mannering Jnr. (Franchot Tone). Leo has already entered the picture - he was impressed with her loyalty and when he finds her down and out on a park bench, finds it easy to persuade her to return to the good life. When Leo finds Mary and Tom chatting, he sees red and is determined to gun Tom down, but Mary stops him with a gun.

It is a very enjoyable film but definitely not as wonderful as a few reviewers would have you believe. I agree with Dan - to me it is an old fashioned melodrama and not a pre-coder.

Recommended.

Pre-Code Perfection

[Maleejandra · 9/10 · 16 November 2005]

Midnight Mary is the story of a girl who grows up poor, gets involved with people on the wrong side of the tracks, and tries to get out. The film opens and closes with Mary in a court room awaiting the verdict in her trial for murder.

Loretta Young plays Mary; Young is absolutely beautiful and proves to be a great actress in all of her scenes.

Ricardo Cortez plays her gangster boyfriend well enough. He is appropriately sinister at times and average in others.

Una Merkel plays Mary's best friend, a cute and funny smart-cookie type.

Franchot Tone is standout in this film, especially in his romantic scenes in which the kisses are long and passionate, the looks are meaningful, and the chemistry is hot and thick. Otherwise, Tone is sweet and lovable as always.

This film was beautifully photographed and employed great costuming resembling both late 1920s and early 30s styles.

This film was made before the production code that censored everything that came out of Hollywood, so it utilizes many racy scenes. One occurs when Young and Tone blatantly talk about the possibility of sex, another when the far from stiff kisses last longer than three seconds, another when Young whispers dirty things into Cortez's ear, and still another when a girl gets pregnant out of wedlock. There is also some abuse shown.

The ending of the film is very satisfying and concludes a great film.

Surprisingly unprofessional

[westerfieldalfred · 7/10 · 18 January 2019]

I enjoyed this film but I have several reservations. First, I thought the camera work sub par. The key light on Young was not properly placed in some instances, where Tone's shadow eclipses it partially. The final scene has cell bars shadowing her nose, making it seem almost non-existent. I don't normally notice such things, so they momentarily broke the spell of the story. And I found Axt's music, which normally is boringly unobtrusive, to be poorly chosen and placed. Expect for these minor intrusions, I'd have given it an eight. In particular, Cortez's death was particularly effective, as was Young's reaction to it. (As I recall, a TCM special on leading ladies showed Cortez being shot by many of the best.)

Humourless and predictable

[1930s_Time_Machine · 5/10 · 12 July 2022]

A typically polished well-made melodrama as you'd expect from the professional but rather corporate MGM factory. Unfortunately this means that all the rough edges are ironed out leaving a somewhat bland retelling of a well-worn (even for 1933) story.

Even though Loretta Young is exceptionally believable, exhibiting a maturity well beyond her years, it is not enough to draw you in to this miserable cliché drenched yarn.

An hour and a quarter has never seemed so long.

Great Performances

[Michael_Elliott · 30 May 2009]

Midnight Mary (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Famous Pre-Code has Loretta Young playing the title character, a woman who always finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. After a stint inside a reform school she winds up on the streets without a job but is taken under the wing of a gangster (Ricardo Cortez). She eventually tries to go straight with the help of a lawyer (Franchot Tone) but soon the gangster wants him dead. Young is one of my favorite actresses and there's no question this here is one of her most famous films but to me the story is really lacking and not too original. It really seems like MGM wanted to throw Young into the sex/vamp role but they didn't put too much thought into the screenplay. The movie certainly isn't bad but at the same time it's not the greatest that it could have been. The biggest issue with Young's vamp here is that she never does anything wrong. She's a good girl from head to toe so there's no point in trying to push her off as the vamp. What makes this film work so well are the incredibly strong performances from the three leads. Young is very sexy and believable in her role. Cortez even manages to deliver a strong performance but the scene stealer has to be Tone. Andy Devine and Una Merkel have supporting roles. To me this film works best as a love story because in heart that's exactly what it is. Throw in the sexy wardrobes of Young mixed with Wellman's direction and you've got a pretty good film that's worth watching.

Enjoyable little drama

[Philipp_Flersheim · 6/10 · 27 January 2022]

This is a well-made and well-acted film. Loretta young gives a convincing performance as the girl who goes off the rails, tries to turn her life around and fails. The only thing that marrs the otherwise very enjoyable picture is the ending: It is such a hard-boiled drama - almost a kind of very early film-noir - that the sugary conclusion really does not fit. I blame the studio!

pre-Code crime drama

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 25 August 2023]

Mary Martin (Loretta Young) is called "Midnight Mary". She is casually resigned to her fate as the jury goes to deliberate in her trial. She recounts her descent into the city underworld from losing her mother in childhood poverty to petty crimes to connecting with gangsters and finally to the crime for which she is being prosecuted.

This is a pre-Code crime drama. It's a compelling story although I am not a big fan of the flashback structure of the story telling. Loretta Young is terrific in this. This is Once Upon a Time in Crime Land. It's melodramatic. It's gritty. It's pre-Code goodness.

Mary Martin has killed a man!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 2 July 2012]

What, Mary Martin, alias Peter Pan, Nellie Forbush, Larry Hagman's mother? No, this Mary Martin is Loretta Young, who was twirling through doors onto people's TV sets in the 1950's while the real Mary Martin was asking us to "think lovely thoughts". This Mary Martin, as the court tells us over and over at the beginning of the movie, is a sinful woman who deserves to be punished for sins Young reveals to us in flashbacks. At first, these flashbacks resemble something out of a D.W. Griffith silent movie (with Young instead of Lillian Gish as a 9 year old!), but eventually, it is this quick cuts of various flashback scenes that will grab the viewer and never let go as her story of degradation unfolds.

Mary is obviously a good girl with a troubled past and turns bad through no fault of her own, although it is insinuated that deep inside, that is all a facade. She is supposed to represent the plight of many girls affected by the depression, exploited by the nasty racketeer Ricardo Cortez. Her life briefly turns around when she meets the well-off Franchot Tone, but like most girls in these kinds of movies, that only lasts for a short time, leading her into all kinds of serious trouble. What makes this pre-code drama better than most is director William Wellman's exquisite use of quick-changing scenes and more realistic performances, even from Ms. Young who seems to have taken on a Joan Crawford persona. I like her more as a sinner than a saint, and here, she combines the two effortlessly. Cortez is appropriately slimy, while Tone adds some humor to his noble good guy. Una Merkel and Andy Devine, sometimes paired together as a comic relief duo, are the comic reliefs here, but they don't work together in this film.

Awesome, jaw-dropping pre-code

[overseer-3 · 9/10 · 6 January 2005]

Midnight Mary is essential viewing for the pre-code fanatic. I am not a big fan of Loretta Young and her bug eyes, but she was superb in this, as a good girl who suffers some rotten luck along the way to becoming a gangster's doll and prized possession. Ricardo Cortez was incredibly sexy and smooth as the jealous gangster; what a fascinating performance. Franchot Tone was his usual handsome, sophisticated self, but the weakest link in the film. His energy level can't compete with Ricardo's. From the opening courtroom scenes, with Loretta reading a Hearst Cosmopolitan magazine (with only her bug eyes showing), to the inevitable ending, this film will keep any pre-code viewer on the edge of their seat. 9 out of 10.

Striving for respectability

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 14 January 2019]

Loretta Young stars in Midnight Mary which opens with her on trial for murder. During a recess she thinks back on her life which was a pretty rough one and how she got to this point with District Attorney Frank Conroy asking for the death penalty.

Young is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks and every time she strove for respectability she got slapped back. She has two men in her life gangster Ricardo Cortez who is suave and dangerous and playboy lawyer Franchot Tone who MGM once again was putting in white tie and tails.

You know this is a pre-code film because at one point Loretta Young is shown to be in an undisguised brothel. Such places later on were only hinted at, never shown.

Such gangster regulars as Harold Huber and Warren Hymer are part of Cortez's mob. Andy Devine has a part as a kind of sidekick to Tone. But the best support in Midnight Mary comes from Una Merkel as a wisecracking easy come, easy go sort of gal.

Both Loretta Young and her two leading men are shown to great advantage in Midnight Mary. A good one for fans of all three to enjoy.

Great William A. Wellman Production

[whpratt1 · 8/10 · 6 January 2005]

William A. Wellman produced many great film Classics and this was one of his greatest. However, Loretta Young,(Mary Martin),"The Bishop's Wife",'47 looked radiant and sexy in her role as a young woman who got off in life on the wrong side of the bed everyday. Mary ran into Ricardo Cortez,(Leo Darcy),"Charlie Chan in Reno,",'39, who was a big time gangster and managed to involve Mary in his criminal activities, forcing Mary to spend time in jail and away from her new lover. Franchot Tone,(Thomas Mannering,Jr.),"Jigsaw",'49, fell in love with Mary Martin while eating some turkey in his apartment late at night. The conversation turned to sex and Mary said," Sex is All that Men Always Think About", which must have gotten some attention in the early 1930's. Andy Devine,(Sam Travers),"Pete Kelly's Blues,",'55, was a sidekick for Thom Mannering and played lots of slapstick comedy which he was famous for during his Hollywood career. Una Merkel,(Bunny,'Bun') gave a great supporting role as a dippy blonde who got pregnant by one of Leo Darcy pals. If you love old time great Classic Actors, this is the film for YOU.

"That's for being a good girl!"

[MissSimonetta · 8/10 · 20 November 2019]

I never thought much of Loretta Young as an actress until I saw her pre-code work, where she really got to play multi-faceted characters. Her luminous screen presence and sense of inner moral fortitude are compelling, especially when she played so-called "bad girls."

Mary Martin isn't a bad girl, really, but a woman often lured into crime by bad circumstances and poverty. This story, which only occasionally lapses into melodramatic excess, is moving and hard-hitting in a way American films were reluctant to be outside of noir come the rigid enforcement of the Production Code from the mid-30s to the early 1960s.

Aside from Young and an excellent supporting cast, this movie is superbly directed by William Wellman, one of pre-code's most distinctive directors. His movies defy the stereotype that all early talkies were static, poorly acted nonsense. There's a technical bravura in this movie and his other early sound masterpieces like THE PUBLIC ENEMY.

Young and Cortez Smoking Hot

[bkzsmith · 4/10 · 8 May 2021]

Too bad Cortez is such a lout, because the kissing scene with Loretta Young is va-va voom, better than anything Franchot Tone delivers.

Superior Soaper

[GManfred · 17 July 2009]

Ordinarily I do not tolerate soap operas well, and "Midnight Mary" is certainly one of these. Commonly referred to as a 'woman's picture', a soap is generally long on talk and unwind at ice-cutter speed. But this picture is different, more of a melodrama with good pacing and acting throughout, and with a thoroughly absorbing screenplay as well.

Director/Social Commentator William Wellman hits the mark with an MGM production that has a gritty Warner Bros. flavor to it. It is Loretta Young's picture and she delivers, with help from a surprisingly strong performance from Ricardo Cortez and from the dependable Franchot Tone. Mention should be made of the effective, haunting theme music by Dr. Wm. Axt, who supervised many MGM scores in the '30's.

Still very worthwhile although somewhat dated nowadays, its essential social message is intact. Well done all around. I gave it a rating of 8 and felt the film earned every bit of it.

A Pre-Code Gem

[piedbeauty37 · 8/10 · 24 April 2013]

This movie is very well directed and acted. Loretta Young is beautiful as Mary Martin, hard luck case who has drifted into a life of crime. Left orphaned during the depression and unable to find a job, she takes up with a gangster.

Mary fall in love with a nice guy attorney and from thence complications ensue. She desperately wants to leave her sordid life behind. Now on trial for murder she relates her life in flash backs to a sympathetic prison clerk.

The film holds your attention from start to finish. There is some great dialogue. The black and white background is appropriate. It lends the right atmosphere.