Alicia I love this movie so much

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

piedbeauty37 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.

secondtake 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.

daneldorado Despite rapturous reviews by some, "Midnight Mary" is a VERY average, even tedious talkathon with no visual surprises. The story could have been told just as well on radio.The film is called a "precoder" by some because it was released in 1933, but the date is the only thing "precode" about it. It stars Loretta Young, then a rising star in Hollywood on the strength of strong performances in the late silent and early talkie eras. She plays Mary Martin, an innocent girl who is taken in by a gangster (Ricardo Cortez) who fancies her, and becomes his "moll." That's it. That's the extent of any sexual content in the film, which is primarily concerned with Mary's trial for the murder of her gangster boyfriend.The story unfolds in flashback after an opening courtroom scene showing the D.A. pleading loudly to the jury that they MUST find Mary guilty. We see the defendant sitting, reading a magazine, apparently unmindful of what the D.A. and the jury think about her.Two spoilers coming up. Mary is convicted, but in the final scene her True Love (Franchot Tone) springs to her defense, telling the court he has some new information. I was furious that this long-winded soap opera might continue for another hour or so; but fortunately, director William Wellman takes mercy on us and winds up the story, right there.One of the benchmarks I use when reviewing a movie is this: If the story could have been told just as well ON RADIO, the movie fails because there are no interesting visuals.That, alas, is the story of "Midnight Mary."

Maliejandra Kay 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.