SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Copyright 28 April 1945 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 20 April 1945. U.S. release: 28 April 1945. Because the studio thought its commercial prospects were so poor, the film was never released in the U.K., one of the few major Hollywood studio "A" features to be voluntarily denied a British release in the 1940s. Australian release: 22 November 1945. 7,144 feet. 79 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A good-natured but not overbright angel is despatched to Earth to sound the Last Trump.VIEWER'S GUIDE: The film could be accused of irreverence and certainly its conclusion is morally up in the air. Dolores Moran is perhaps too vampish for family viewing.COMMENT: This highly amusing entry in Hollywood's visiting angels cycle puts the lie to claims that action director Raoul Walsh was out of his element with comedy. Not only is Walsh's timing perfect but every laugh, every wisecrack and comeback, every double take, every bit of lunatic slapstick is forcefully yet deftly put across with maximum audience impact. Of course on the technical side Walsh was helped no end by his astute film editor Irene Morra who cuts away or dissolves from the action at precisely the right second, not allowing any scene to drag or end on too high a punctuation of slow burns and/or expressions of surprise. Photographer Sid Hickox is also a major contributor to the film's success, as is art director Hugh Reticker. The costumes designed by Milo Anderson are really stunning (especially a gown that Dolores Moran models for the finale), while the elaborately contrived, stupendous special effects are absolutely out of this world.Jack Benny is a riot as the none-too-bright angel who yet has some neat lines in snappy comebacks. His run-ins with slow-minded, self-important cop James Burke and fallen angels (with twitching spasms) Allyn Joslyn and John Alexander are especially comical. Alexis Smith is suitably statuesque as the harpist who sets her mind to advancing Benny's career, though she is outclassed in the glamor stakes by Dolores Moran who has one of the best roles of her life here. Reginald Gardiner is also perfectly cast, as is Guy Kibbee and Make Mazurki - to single out but two names from a brilliant roster of support players.Walsh has stated that he enjoyed making this movie, and had a stimulating rapport with producer Mark Hellinger ("an intelligent man") and photographer Sid Hickox. Unfortunately it was not successful on first release, either with critics or public, although it has now amassed a considerable cult following. Contemporary audiences doubtless found the movie too unusual, too barbed, too lunatic, perhaps even too irreverent.

This movie is very mediocre. Jack Benny isn't used nearly as well as he could be, and the script is very weak. I can't stand any movie that uses the "it was just a dream" cheat to get the hero out of a difficult situation, and this one does it very poorly. We're told at the beginning of the movie it's a dream, and I quickly lost interest from that point onward.On the other hand, Jack Benny made a 1-hour radio version of this movie for The Ford Theater in 1949. That version isn't great; it's like most comedy from that era that hasn't worn as well as those from earlier or later time periods. However, it has a better script, and it is NOT a dream! More importantly, whoever did the update was able to come up with a pretty good ending for a story that sets up an impossible situation (destroying the world isn't typically considered a good ending in a comedy). The radio version's ending was very timely for 1949, and a little sad listening to it today.If you want to hear it, the radio version is relatively easy to locate on the internet. Just search for "The Horn Blows at Midnight" and "Ford Theater", and you should be able to find multiple sites with the mp3.

That title isn't meant to be a put-down... considering that Carl Stalling of the Termite Terrace cartooning unit at Warner Brothers did some of the music, and the sound effects track used a LOT of stuff from Bugs Bunny cartoons, I think it's a fair question.A FAR better movie than Jack Benny claimed (for years afterward he did jokes about the film, wondering why he didn't get an Oscar), THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT is simply a cartoon for adult audiences, staged with human beings instead of animated drawings. It uses all of the basic tools of a cartoon... an outlandish situation, a suspension of belief in reality, and a total disregard for physics and natural law.A lot of posters here criticize the movie for not being funnier. It IS funny, very much so... but it's a much more laid back and understated humor than we see in today's films. Remember, film audiences in 1945 were not expecting to see something out of PORKIES or ANIMAL HOUSE; their tastes were a lot different than ours. This isn't a comedic style that beats you over the head; it's a platform that lets the considerable comedic talent employed show off it's best schtick... Margaret Dumont playing her trademark Upper Class Lady (as Mme. Traviata, the opera singer) and looking completely ridiculous in that role with her choice of music... Reginald Gardener using his facial expressiveness to indicate extreme pain at the mutilation of his music... Benny doing his stand-up jokes... and Franklin Pangborn, "The Master of the Slow Burn", displaying his best move again and again all thru the movie.There IS over the top craziness here tho, in the final dream sequence where the battle for possession of the trumpet takes place. In good WB cartoon style they saved the insanity for the end of the picture. The cartoon sound effects show up in profusion here, and Stalling's cartoon musical scoring comes to the fore; THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE being played in perfect Termite Terrace style to indicate drunkenness gets it's point across perfectly.It's a FAR better movie than Benny ever let on in his radio show patter; he should have been PROUD of it, and I suspect that actually he secretly WAS.

Not really as terrible as my rating might seem to indicate. This movie is mildly amusing, has imaginative set design, and there are some visually stunning shots. I'd give it an average rating of 5 or so, except it loses points for a couple important reasons.First...the stars.This was my introduction to Jack Benny and I was not impressed. I didn't find him funny at all - which could be the script's weakness as well, but Benny's physical presence & personality should've made up for poor writing...and didn't. He is one of the least charming, least attractive "leading men" I've ever seen. I understand he had a very popular radio show... well, maybe film just wasn't his medium.Alexis Smith plays Benny's unlikely love interest, and her character isn't really developed - she might as well be made of cardboard. Guy Kibbee is fun, but woefully underused.Second...the story.The script makes a slight attempt to Say Something Serious about the state of the planet. The angels plan to destroy Earth because... we suck. So we'd better start behaving better! I guess. The message is vague and there's no real follow-through. This sort of storyline - the end of the world due to humanity's failure - feels like it *should* be taken seriously. It doesn't fit in such a fluffy film.I absolutely LOATHE the "it was only a dream" plot device. Especially when it's revealed to be a dream at the beginning of the movie! What the heck is the point of *that*? Knowing from the start that everything you're about to see, isn't really happening, kind of sucks the fun out of it. The story becomes pointless and meaningless. It feels like they just couldn't figure out how to resolve the whole Earth-is-doomed thing. There was no way out of it (unless the writers went with a more serious treatment - maybe a twist on "It's A Wonderful Life", yeah, this time it's up to a human to convince an angel that humanity is worth saving...call it "It's A Wonderful World After All"). Anyway, after Benny wakes up, nothing really changes in his life, and nothing has been learned. Utterly pointless.I can see how people might enjoy "The Horn Blows At Midnight" if they're in the mood for something surreal and silly (although it never hits the heights of truly inspired silliness such as you'll find in a Marx Brothers movie, for instance). So, not as stinky as it's reputed to be, but FAR from the lost comedy classic some would like to believe.