MIDNIGHT (1939)

Charming screwball comedy involving a storybook mingling of the rich and the poor. Once upon a rainy Parisian night, Claudette Colbert arrives in town by train, having lost everything she owned gambling in Monte Carlo. A cab driver, Don Ameche, takes pity on her and offers her a ride and a place to stay; she takes the ride but gets out at a snazzy night spot where she hopes to pull a con job for food, shelter, or more. She sneaks into a society party, passes herself off as a baroness, and makes friends while playing poker. John Barrymore is a bored millionaire who catches on to her con, but admires her abilities; he backs up Colbert's lies by providing her with a suite at a hotel and a trunk full of clothes. In return, he asks that she help him to woo a playboy (Francis Lederer) who is currently wooing Barrymore's wife (Mary Astor). Colbert agrees and joins them all at a weekend house party; meanwhile, Ameche tracks her down and shows up to take her away (thinking he's saving her from herself, I imagine). Instead, she spins more ridiculous stories and makes Ameche seem like a certifiable loon; he can't figure out why the rich folks won't believe anything he says. Very funny complications follow. Hedda Hopper is Stephanie, a society dowager who is throwing the party in the opening scene; Elaine Barrie, Barrymore's wife in real life, gets in one the best lines as she waits to get into the party: "It always rains when Stephanie gives one of her dull parties--even nature weeps." Monty Woolley has a small part in the end as a judge who tries to disentangle all the webs which have been woven, by Colbert and Barrymore and Ameche. Funny, well acted all around, and wonderfully paced, fast without being frantic. One of the best of the classic screwball comedies. [TCM]