HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT [1937 / 2021] [The Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release]
The Chemistry Crackles between Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer!
Suffused with intoxicating romanticism, ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ is a sublime paean [song or lyric poem] to love from director Frank Borzage, classic Hollywood’s supreme poet of carnal and spiritual desire. On the run through Europe from her wealthy, cruelly possessive husband Bruce Vail [Colin Clive] an American Irene Vail [Jean Arthur] is thrown together by fate with a suave stranger Paul Dumond [Charles Boyer] and soon the two are bound in a consuming, seemingly impossible affair that stretches across continents and brings them to the very edge of catastrophe.
Lent with a palpable erotic charge by the chemistry between its leading actors, this delirious vision of lovers beset by the world passes through a dizzying array of tonal shifts from melodrama to romantic comedy to noir to disaster thriller and smoothly guided by Frank Borzage’s unwavering allegiance to the power of love.
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FILM FACT: Director Frank Borzage's attachment to the project was announced in July 1936. Filming of ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ began on the 4th November, 1936 and was completed on the 31st December, 1936. The film ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ has been noted by critics for its blending of genres, including comedy, drama, and romance, as well as introducing elements of suspense and disaster films in its final act. The film ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ was nominated for the American Film Institute's 2002 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions.
Cast: Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo, Colin Clive, Ivan Lebedeff, George Meeker, Lucien Prival, George Davis, Bobby Barber (uncredited), Phyllis Barry (uncredited), Joseph E. Bernard (uncredited), Jeanne Blanche (uncredited), Barlowe Borland (uncredited), Harvey Clark (uncredited), Dora Clement (uncredited), Adrienne D'Ambricourt (uncredited), Harry Depp (uncredited), Edward Earle (uncredited), Gloria Eaton (uncredited), Franklyn Farnum (uncredited), Byron Foulger (uncredited), Roger Gray (uncredited), Tim Holt (uncredited), George Humbert (uncredited), Payne B. Johnson (uncredited), Jeannette Kerner (uncredited), Tetsu Komai (uncredited), Rollo Lloyd (uncredited), John Marston (uncredited), Louis Mercier (uncredited), Martha Merrill (uncredited), Helene Millard (uncredited), Carlyle Moore Jr. (uncredited), Jack Mulhall (uncredited), David Newell (uncredited), Barry Norton (uncredited), Dennis O'Keefe (uncredited), Robert Parrish (uncredited), Russ Powell (uncredited), June Preston (uncredited), Georges Renavent (uncredited), Jack Richardson (uncredited), Tom Ricketts (uncredited), James Sheridan (uncredited), Adele St. Maur (uncredited), William Stack (uncredited), Amzie Strickland (uncredited), Pierre Watkin (uncredited) and Charles Williams (uncredited)
Director: Frank Borzage
Producer: Walter Wanger
Screenplay: C. Graham Baker (screenplay), Gene Towne (screenplay), David Hertz (additional dialogue), Vincent Lawrence (additional dialogue) and Frank Borzage (uncredited)
Composer: Alfred Newman (uncredited)
Costumes: Bernard Newman
Cinematography: David Abel, A.S.C. (Director of Photography) and Gregg Wesley Toland, A.S.C. (Director of Photography) (uncredited)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio
English: 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 97 minutes
Region: Region A/1
Number of discs: 1
Studio: UNITED ARTISTS / JANUS FILMS / The Criterion Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ [1937] We find tired Irene Vail [Jean Arthur] of the bitter jealously and possessiveness of her shipping magnate husband Bruce Vail [Colin Clive], so Irene Vail decides to divorce him and start all over again. However, Bruce Vail has no intentions of letting Irene Vail go, especially since there’s a loophole that can prevent the divorce from being finalized. In the midst of this tug of war enters Paul Dumond [Charles Boyer], a top waiter at the best restaurant in all of Paris, who ends up falling madly in love with Irene Vail. But the road to true love is long and winding, and it spans the ocean between Europe and America while taking a few twists along the way; it’ll end up taking a headline making disaster to make everything right in the end.
Of all the film’s director Frank Borzage made and directed over his career, ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ is one that doesn’t fit comfortably in any one genre. On the surface, it appears to be a romantic comedy, but the script by Gene Towne and Graham Baker quickly turns that on its head. There are elements of melodrama and early flashes of what would become film noir mixed in during the proceedings; also, thanks to the success of M-G-M’s ‘San Francisco’ [1936], we are also treated to a great climatic shipwreck that would predate the disaster thriller genre by several decades. Best of all, this unique brew of different genres is mixed together effectively without inducing whiplash during the film’s brisk running time. Throw in some solid performances by the cast and ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ is turned into one of the most underrated movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood, one that truly does have something for everyone.
‘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 Frank Borzage's films is forces that threaten to keep intended folks apart. This is true in the films ‘Three Comrades’ and ‘The Mortal Storm’ where it is the political situation in Germany of the twenties and thirties respectively.
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 and of course by destiny, that Jean Arthur can but laugh out her husband, who by his intrigues planned the opposite and accidentally opened her real love life.
‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ is 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, Irene Vail 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 greatly and the finale aboard a sinking cruise ship certainly boasts true showmanship!
To sum up the film ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT,’ I felt it was one of the most beautiful romantic and emotional film I have ever viewed and at the very end of the film I can predict you will have tears of joy and you better have the Kleenex tissues handy, as you will need them to soak up the many tears you will have to soak up, but they mainly will be tears of joy viewing this really wonderful emotional beautiful film I have ever viewed.
HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT MUSIC TRACK LIST
ADIOS MUCHACHOS (I Get Ideas) (uncredited) (Written by Julio Sanders) [Played by the band at Cesare's] [Danced to by Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur] [Reprised on a record on the ship to Paris]
Nearer My God To Thee (uncredited) (Music by Lowell Mason) (1856) (Lyrics by Sarah F. Adams) [Sung by passengers on the ship when it was sinking]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – UNITED ARTISTS, JANUS FILMS and The Criterion Collection has once again given us a very professional looking ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ Blu-ray disc, with a superb and stunning black-and-white 1080p image, that is a vast improvement over the inferior DVD release, and is in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio. This new 4K digital transfer was created primarily from a 35mm nitrate duplicate negative preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive; with some sections of the 35mm safety fine-grain was also used. All scans were done on a Lasergraphics Director Film scanner with a 16-bit 4K resolution. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices and warps were manually removed using a MTI Film’s DRS, while Digital Vision’s Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain and noise management.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – UNITED ARTISTS, JANUS FILMS and The Criterion Collection has once again given us a very professional audio experience and generally speaking, but of course when the film ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ was released in 1937, and the technology we get today was not available at that time, so that is why we only get a 1.0 LPCM Mono Audio experience. But with the improvement in technology the dialogue is so much crisper, clearer, and better all rounded than it sounded on the audio track that was on the inferior DVD release. It is totally free of any strong background hiss like you previously heard on the inferior DVD release, and obviously they have stabilised the strong background hiss and there are no high-frequencies distortions, and is very well stabilised, especially when hearing the wonderful and haunting William Alwyn's for the composed music film score, that is an added bonus for this film. The original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the original nitrate optical soundtrack negative using the Avid’s Pro Tools and iZotope RX. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Special Feature: Hervé Dumont and Peter Cowie [2018] [1080p] [1.78:1 / 1.37:1] [23:53] With this featurette, we get to view a conversation between Hervé Dumont who was the former director of The Swiss Film Archive [Cinémathèque suisse] and author of “Frank Borzage: The Life and Films of a Hollywood Romantic” and Film Scholar Peter Cowie and the conversation was recorded in Lausanne, Switzerland in January 2018. With Peter Cowie’s conversation Hervé Dumont they get to talk about the slapdash production of ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ and Frank Borzage's distinctive style. Hervé Dumont talks about the reshoots that were required to make the ever-changing plot make sense, the myriad genres the movie embraces, and Frank Borzage's craftsmanship, directorial philosophy, and adroit use of humour. They also note how a distraught Colin Clive fought throughout the filming while very gravely ill and sadly he died shortly after production wrapped and applauded both the film's masterful editing and the lush wonderful Alfred Newman music score. Author Hervé Dumont and Film Historian Peter Cowie also talk about the films production, which to no one’s surprised, sounded to have been basically made up as production went on while filming and producer Walter Wanger pitched just the film title to Frank Borzage when he first approached the director to make the film. They get into the idea of the “Borzage touch,” trying to define what that was by talking about a number of the film’s sequences and visuals, and also discuss some changes that were made to the film, including one key plot point that, in my opinion, helped further make the film’s antagonist that much more threatening and a choice he makes later that less surprising. As an added bonus, we get to view lots of clips from the film ‘HISTORY MADE AT NIGHT.’ Spoiler Alert: Please do not watch this featurette first before watching the film, as they give away the final end to the film, but despite this, the conversation between Hervé Dumont and Peter Cowie is totally fascinating and is a MUST view featurette.
Special Feature: Farran Smith Nehme [2019] [1080p] [1.37:1 / 1.78:1] [13:21] With this featurette, we get to view the following interview that was recorded by The Criterion Channel in 2019, where Film Critic Farran Smith Nehme discusses director Frank Borzage’s obsession with romantic love. On top of all that, Farran Smith Nehme examines Frank Borzage’s fascination with the power of love that made him unique even in his own time. On top of all that, the film critic Farran Smith Nehme discusses the “spiritual dimension” that pervades the work of Frank Borzage, whom Farran Smith Nehme recalls “the purest kind of romantic.” We also get clips from several Frank Borzage films, most notably ‘A Farewell to Arms’ and illustrate Farran Smith Nehme's comments and analysis. As an added bonus, we get to view several different film clips that were directed by Frank Borzage.
Special Feature: Frank Borzage [Audio only] [1958] [1080p] [1.78:1] [30:47] With this featurette, we get to hear the following audio excerpt that is from an interview with director Frank Borzage that was conducted by the Film Historian and Curator George Pratt in honour of Frank Borzage’s gift of a print of his film ‘Seventh Heaven’ to the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. In this audio conversation, director Frank Borzage recounts his humble youth, and his road to Hollywood and Frank Borzage started out originally as an actor, and how he broke into directing. Frank Borzage also shares some memories of his silent pictures, which includes the Oscar-winning ‘7th Heaven’ and recalls a tragedy that occurred on location, and also talks about the pandemonium that that occurred when talkies came in, and reveals half of ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ was already in the can before they devised the climactic shipwreck scene. Some rare black-and-white photos are included with this Frank Borzage's insightful and heartfelt comments. Please Note: This is a digital reproduction of an audiotape that has been preserved by the GEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM, and tis audio recording was recorded at Frank Borzage’s home on the 11th April, 1958.
Special Feature: Restoration Demonstration [2021] [1080p] [1.37:1] [8:52] With this featurette, we get to view the work done by the technical people at The Criterion Collection in the upgrading image of the film ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ and as an added bonus we get an audio commentary explaining the in-depth information how this wonderful was able to bring this classic brilliant 1937 film upgraded for the 21st century audiences who can now view such a brilliant image presentation. With this featurette, we have a far more in-depth detail than most comparisons, and take’s us through the film's restoration step by step. First, we see all the existing sources of ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ and then restoration artist Eric Lutz demonstrates the painstaking process of cleaning and sprucing up the damaged image. Eric Lutz also details some of the quandaries he faced and some of the challenges and hiccups that arose during the long detail restoration work.
Special Feature: The Screen Guild Theater [Audio only] [1940] [1080p] [1.78:1] [27:05] With this featurette, we are informed that actor Charles Boyer reprises his role as Paul Dumond from the film ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ for this severely truncated radio adaptation broadcast on the 10th November, 1940 with Greer Garson and Lionel Atwill filling in for Jean Arthur and the late Colin Clive respectively; and a last-minute replacement for an ailing Myrna Loy, makes her American radio debut in Jean Arthur's part and the menacing Lionel Atwill portrays her jealous husband. The rough audio quality makes Charles Boyer's accented dialogue difficult to comprehend, but it's interesting to hear the major narrative changes and especially the climactic shipwreck is omitted in favour of a courtroom scene and was made to accommodate the radio medium and half-hour time slot. This broadcast was also Greer Garson’s radio debut in the USA. Sadly, the audio presentation is totally atrocious, and should never have been alloed to be included on the Blu-ray release.
BONUS: Here you have a very nice illustrated foldout 10 page leaflet entitled VAIL CRUISE featuring an extensive essay by Dan Callahan entitled “Taking a Chance on Love.” You also get included PRODUCTION CREDITS, ABOUT THE TRANSFER, SPECIAL THANKS and CAST.
Finally, ‘HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT’ was a small box office hit during its initial run, and is a tantalizing mix of different genres that works as a whole and a feather in the cap of director Frank Borzage and is very worthy of multiple viewings. 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. 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.
The Criterion Collection has once again produced another gem for the Blu-ray disc format, with a stellar HD transfer and a great plethora of bonus features included. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
