- The Horn Blows at Midnight
Infobox Film
name = The Horn Blows at Midnight
image_size = 187px
caption =
director =Raoul Walsh
producer =Mark Hellinger
writer =
narrator =
starring =Jack Benny Alexis Smith Dolores Moran Allyn Joslyn Reginald Gardiner Guy Kibbee
music =Franz Waxman
cinematography =Sidney Hickox
editing =
distributor =Warner Bros.
released =April 20 , 1945 (U.S. release)
runtime = 78 min
country =United States
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0037790"The Horn Blows at Midnight" (1945) is a comedy fantasy starring
Jack Benny , directed byRaoul Walsh and co-starringAlexis Smith ,Dolores Moran ,Allyn Joslyn , andReginald Gardiner . Its biggest claim to fame, apart from its star, is its failure at the box office, and this fact was exploited often for laughs in Benny's popular radio comedy series "The Jack Benny Program ".Plot
The plot involves the third
trumpet player in theorchestra of a radio program, named the Paradise Coffee Program, who falls asleep listening to the reading of theadvertisement : "The coffee that makes you sleep." He dreams he is the angel Athanael, a trumpeter in theorchestra ofheaven , who is such a terriblemusician that he is relieved of his position and sent on a mission to Earth to blow the "Last Trumpet" at midnight, signaling theend of the world . Complications arise when twofallen angel s named Osidro and Doremus want to continue their physical existence of pursuing pleasures. While Athanael encounters experiences ofmortal life, such as eating food and the need for money, the fallen angels try to prevent Athanael from going through with his mission by having histrumpet stolen.Appearance in Other Media
The script was re-worked into an episode of radio's Ford Theatre, broadcast March 04, 1949. Jack Benny reprised his character of Athaniel, with
Claude Raines now playing the Chief. This time the story was told in a straight-forward fashion, with Benny actually playing an angel sent to Earth to blow the horn, as opposed to the dream scenario of the film. The radio story focuses on Athaniel's moral dilemma about whether or not the people of Earth, just suffering World War II, deserved to be extinguished with the Earth or given another chance.Legacy
In addition to Benny's jokes on the film, composer
Franz Waxman reworked some of his music for the film in a comicOverture for Orchestra that he performed on occasion.
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