Violent Midnight (1963)

- written February 2008

Summary: Elliot has inherited the family estate following the death of his hated father in a shooting accident. A former War veteran, Elliot has now become a celebrated artist. Elliot’s favorite nude model, Dolores, desires Elliot and tries to play him off against her boyfriend Charlie. When that doesn’t work, Dolores tries to blackmail Elliot by claiming she is pregnant with his child. That too fails and the next morning Dolores is found stabbed to death. The police start to question everyone but find nothing but red herrings and women falling for Elliott!           Overall: It’s an ok movie. Seems a bit long, as we spend a lot of time following the police investigations and frankly at times, I’m not sure if the film wanted be a slasher or just a psychological drama. We get so much plot in the first 20 mins leading up to Delores death and then we plod along for next 45 mins with relatively little info or action. Then a few more bodies, then pausing and plodding, before the end. Poorly paced film I think. What shocked me though…well maybe not “shocked” as “caught my attention” was the skin in this film. Our director just loved tempting and teasing the audience with some naked body parts. We don’t see any goodies but we sure spend a lot of time “almost” seeing them. For the time period, caught me off guard!           Comparison: Shattered meets Striking Distance

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