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Salient: An organ of student opinion at Victoria University, Wellington. Vol. 23, No. 4. Wednesday, May 4, 1960

"The Middle Of The Night"

"The Middle Of The Night"

Pregnant with dramatic content, the screenplay of "The Middle of the Night" (II), has its basis in the not uncommon ideal of compassion for the underdog. Paddy Chayefsky who gave us "Marty" and "Bachelor Party" has here written a telling impressionistic account of the struggle of two people against social conventions and conformity. Unfortunately. Chayefsky's characters are a trifle too arbitrary, and though the script never stoops to the level of melodrama, there is a certain dearth of material substance, a lack of genuineness about the script and action-theme. The treatment of the screenplay is no doubt largely to blame (or this, though I had the impression the primary fault lay in the direction, and that Delbert Mann did not feel quite at home with his subject.

The system of grading films is as follows:

I: Excellent

II: Good

III: Average

IV: Fair

V: Poor

As the two chief characters, Frederic March and Kim Novak are two capable players who here, turn in two sensitive and keen performances.

An intrinsic part of any film with such a setting and subject as Chayefsky's, the art direction in "The Middle of the Night" is superbly handled. Stock shots are at a minimum and the camerawork undertaken for the most part in low-key lighting with hard contrast accentuates the movies more emotive sequences 'superlatively. However, and only purists will probably insist that, the banal use of neuroticism and psychological misfits in the movie is the main drawback in on otherwise fine film.