Main Cast: Jack Benny, Alexis Smith, Guy Kibbee, Margaret Dumont, Allyn Joslyn, Dolores Moran, Reginald Gardiner
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 78 minutes
Plot
Though Jack Benny made a cottage industry out of joking about the purported rottenness of his 1945 vehicle Horn Blows at Midnght, the film is in fact a delightful comedy-fantasy-certainly not Benny's best film, but far from his worst. While dozing off during a radio broadcast, studio musician Athaniel (Benny) dreams he's a trumpet player in Heaven's celestial orchestra. At the behest of glamorous angel Elizabeth (Alexis Smith), Athaniel is brought into the lavish chambers of The Chief (Guy Kibbee), who has a job for our hapless hero. It seems that The Front Office, dissatisfied with the state of things on planet Earth ("just a six-day job"), has decided to destroy the tiny globe. Athaniel is to go down to New York City and blow his trumpet at midnight, thereby heralding the end of the world. Unfortunately he botches the job and remains stuck on earth as a "fallen angel" along with previous Heavenly dropouts Osidro (Allyn Joslyn) and and Doremus (John Alexander). Having persuaded The Chief to give Athaniel a second chance, Elizabeth herself comes to Earth to make sure that her sweetheart successfully completes his mission. Alas, the impoverished Athaniel has used his precious trumpet to pay for a meal, thereby setting off a chain reaction of comic complications, culminating with a Harold Lloyd-like climax wherein Athaniel is but one of six people precariously dangling from a skyscraper ledge. Evidence exists that the "dream" framework and slapstick finale of Horn Blows at Midnight were last-minute additions: A 1949 radio version of the Sam Hellman-James V. Kern screenplay is quite different, with a more sentimental and "meaningful" finale. Whatever the case, the screen version of Horn Blows at Midnight delivers plenty of laughs for Benny fans and casual viewers alike. Alas, the film proved a box-office disappointment, which was injurious for Benny's film career but a boon to his radio and TV shows, which thrived on derisive Horn Blows at Midnight jokes for the next two decades! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Horn Blows at Midnight was released in 1945, the year that atomic weapons destroyed two cities in Japan, and the year that saw an end to 30 years of conflict that had twice required U.S. intervention. Perhaps this is why audiences weren't interested in buying tickets to an end-of-the-world farce. Or perhaps audiences were tired of the lightweight fantasy-comedies that had flourished during the war years. Whatever the reason, the movie's star, Jack Benny, turned failure into an asset, spending the next three decades building a comic legend about the film's failure. While not at the level of Benny's work in To Be or Not To Be (few films are), The Horn Blows at Midnight is an enjoyable romp. Director Raoul Walsh was a no-frills style studio hand, capable of some sophistication in action films or dramas but largely impatient with the subtleties of comedy. In keeping with Walsh's strengths as a director, The Horn Blows at Midnight is best in its broadest moments, such as the skyscraper finale. While it may lack the texture of a top-rank classic, it's a solid, entertaining film. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Hugh Reticker, Jr. - Art Director, Clarence I. Steensen - Art Director, Milo Anderson - Costume Designer, Raoul Walsh - Director, Irene Morra - Editor, Carl Stalling - Composer (Music Score), Franz Waxman - Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Perc Westmore - Makeup, Sidney Hickox - Cinematographer, Mark Hellinger - Producer, Clarence I. Steensen - Set Designer, Lawrence W. Butler - Special Effects, Stan Jones - Sound/Sound Designer, Sam Hellman - Screenwriter, James Kern - Screenwriter
The plot involves the third trumpet player in the orchestra of a radio program, named the Paradise Coffee Program, who falls asleep listening to the reading of the advertisement: "The coffee that makes you sleep." He dreams he is the angel Athanael, a trumpeter in the orchestra of heaven, who is such a terrible musician that he is relieved of his position and sent on a mission to Earth to blow the "Last Trumpet" at midnight, signaling the end of the world. Complications arise when two fallen angels named Osidro and Doremus want to continue their physical existence of pursuing pleasures. While Athanael encounters experiences of mortal life, such as eating food and the need for money, the fallen angels try to prevent Athanael from going through with his mission by having his trumpet stolen.
Appearance in other media
The script was re-worked into an episode of radio's Ford Theater, broadcast March 04, 1949. Jack Benny reprised his character of Athaniel, with Claude Rains now playing the Chief. This time the story was told in a straight-forward fashion, with Benny actually playing an angel sent to Earth to blow the horn, as opposed to the dream scenario of the film. The radio story focuses on Athaniel's moral dilemma about whether or not the people of Earth, just suffering World War II, deserved to be extinguished with the Earth or given another chance.
Legacy
In addition to Benny's jokes on the film, composer Franz Waxman reworked some of his music for the film in a comic Overture for Orchestra that he performed on occasion.
