THE MIDNIGHT MAN


US, 1974, 117 minutes, Colour.
Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Cameron Mitchell, Morgan Woodward, Harris Yulin, Robert Quarry, Ed Lauter.
Directed by Roland Kibbee and Burt Lancaster.

The Midnight Man is a complex murder mystery. Burt Lancaster plays a man just out of prison who takes on a job as a security guard at a university. When one of the students is murdered, he becomes an investigator. There is a whole range of suspects and the plotting becomes very complicated.

For those who enjoy murder mysteries as well as seeing Burt Lancaster in his later years and a number of character actors from Universal Studios of the 70s, this is reasonable entertainment. The only other film that Burt Lancaster directed was The Kentuckian in 1955.
1. Why are murder mysteries always interesting? Suspense films? Do audiences like puzzles and surprises? How good a murder mystery was this? The significance and tone of the opening with the robbery and shooting?

2. What particular features of interest were there in this murder mystery? How strongly drawn were the characters and their interaction? How strong was the sense of location?

3. How well did the film utilise its sense of place? The town? The college? The people in it and the things that they did?

4. How appropriate a name for Jim Slade was the Midnight Man? How heroic a person was he? Did he invoke audience sympathy? What were his main good characteristics? What were his limitations? The fact that he was an ex-policeman and an ex-convict? His relationship to the probation officer? The fact that he had always wanted to be a policeman and exercised this kind of duty? Should he have investigated the murder? Why? Did you agree with his principles and with his mode of behaviour?

5. Slade as a friend: how sympathetic was he? his sense of humour? His role during the robbery at the beginning? His injuries? Were you surprised to find the truth about him? How ironic was this? How malicious was he? How much control did he have over the situation? The fact that he would murder his friend? The significance of this?

6. Probation Officer: was she a sympathetic heroine? How good a probation officer was she? Her kind of duty and obligation? Her background as a gangster's wife? Her love of good fun? Her attraction towards Slade? What else did she contribute to the plot of the film? What did she contribute to Slade's investigations? Why didn't we see her going off happily ever after with Slade? Her association with Lamarr?

7. What questions of ethics did the stealing of the tapes involve? The doctor with his system for students helping their points of view? The possibility of their being stolen for blackmail? Comment on the vivid reactions of the students when they heard that they had being stolen? How effective were these interviews? How significant for the film?

8. The importance or the murdered girl? As a character in the film? Her relationship to Arthur? Her relationship to her father? Her reaction to the tapes being stolen? The problem that the was trying to solve? The men that she thought might be her father, especially the artist?

9. What was your reaction to the sheriff? Did he seem a suspicious man? Drama with a sense of duty? The irony of his assistant being in the pay of the criminals?

10. How interestingly did the film show Slade's investigations and their steps?

11. What did the senator and his assistant add to the film? As regards human interest and suspense? Complications of plot? The senator and his relationship to his wife and his daughter? His calling in Slade? The fact that he paid the money?

12. What did the three violent criminals add to the film? Their presence at the initial robbery? Their bashing of Slade? The violence of hie killing all three? Did this add to or subtract from the film? Why?

13. The social comment of the religious maniac? The fact that he was a pervert? The fact that he was a possible murderer?

14. How strongly drawn were the minor characters such as the boyfriend? The roommate? The artist?

15. Was the truth easy to understand and was it well explained in the film? How ironic was this complexity when the film showed Slade watching his friend doing his running?

16. What values did the film stand for and explore? Was it well presented? Did it lapse in violence? Was it overall an enjoyable film?