“Midnight Court” One Sheet
On June 22, 2013 by Christina Rice With 4 Comments
- Collection Spotlight
Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 173
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By the fall of 1936, Warner Bros. had pretty much given up on Ann Dvorak. She had not made a movie with them for almost year because of illness, suspension, and lawsuits. Her days with the studio were numbered, so it’s surprising they would so prominently feature Ann on the poster art for Midnight Court, her penultimate film with them. Like most of Ann’s film during her tenure in Burbank her role in Midnight Court was a leading lady one in support of the male star of the film – in this case John Litel.
It’s not a great film, but moderately watchable and features the ugliest costume of Ann’s career which I have gleefully talked about before. If nothing else, Midnight Court afforded this Ann Dvorak collector a pretty poster.
You have a disarming way of combining adverbs & adjectives – fabulously hideous, impressively unflattering – in this instance, describing Ann’s costume. I thought it uniquely chic. In any event, I look forward to more such writing in the bio.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep your interest for 100,000+ words. No one will ever convince me that the Fish Dress has any merit other than eliciting shrieks of campy horror from viewers.
Have you ever wondered if, with the situation between Ann and Warner Brothers being as you described it at the time she appeared in “Midnight Court”, the “fabulously hideous” and “impressively unflattering” fish dress she wore (or had to wear) was a subtle — or maybe not so subtle — ‘don’t get mad, get even’ gesture on the part of the studio?
Naw, the costume designer thought it was great. I even found a newspaper article all about how grand it was and that it was inspired by medieval knights. As far as I know, the WB costume collection was kept largely intact and I a hope one day to see this with my own eyes.