Midnight Lace 1960

                  Poor rich Mrs. Kit Preston. Walking home one night through a pea soup fog in London town, she finds herself all alone in Grosvenor Square near the statue of Franklin Roosevelt when a voice calls out to her. The voice is not attached to anyone; instead it floats in and out of the fog telling her she will be murdered.
                  The voice is creepy for sure, high pitched and sing song, and Mrs. Preston is of course distressed by this and starts to run home. Thus begins the “femme Jep” thriller Midnight Lace starring Doris Day as the femme in jeopardy.
                Released in 1960 but really it’s still a 50’s movie. The film was first seen by me, an avid Doris Day fan at the age of 13 at a first showing on a crisp fall morning at Radio City Music Hall. Me and a few friends had taken the subway from Brooklyn and bought our fifty cent tickets at the subterranean ticket booth located in the Rockefeller Center subway station, a Convenient and considerate long ago and far away nicety of a long lost city.
                The film didn’t bowl us 13 year olds over, most likely because it was so simple and obvious even to us kids, and upon seeing it again the other week in its newly released dvd after 57 years I still pretty much feel the same about it that I did that fall morning in 1960.
                   Oh its still fun, if for nothing else than the high end clothes designed by Irene that Doris wears, it seems like she dons a new one every 20 seconds. There are some gems scattered among the cast. Most welcomed are Myrna Loy still charming and lovely, a breath of fresh 1930’s air as Day’s wise cracking rich aunt come to visit and winds up giving her support and comfort in her terrible ordeal of being threatened by this maniacal detached voice that comes and goes like the London fog.
              Who is he and why is he after her? Her new husband played by Rex Harrison is a ceo of some kind of a company, and he takes up his wife’s peril with Scotland Yard and Inspector Byrnes who is played with comfort and regularity by the terrific John Williams who made a career of playing this type of role.
                         Doubts about her sanity are tossed about and there are enough red herrings thrown around to cause one to slip and fall. Also around is John Gavin who might be the most beautiful actor ever to appear in films as a construction site foreman who is always at the right place when Doris needs rescuing.  John doesn’t bother with a British accent and is as wooden as ever but who needs acting when you look like him and besides 1960 was a good year for him with him also showing up in  “Psycho” and “Spartacus” to show off his gorgeousness.
                   Directed by David Miller who made the much better femme Jep thriller “Sudden Fear” and the cult modern day western “Lonely Are The Brave.”  We of course stayed on to see the elaborate stage show “Brazil” which had the smell of coffee coming through the Music Hall’s vents as the Rockettes kicked. Afterwards we went to the Horn and Hardart on the corner with our nickels for a lunch of baked beans and macaroni and cheese.