The Horn Blows at Midnight

Plot synopsis:
Athanael (Jack Benny), the third trumpet player in the orchestra of a late night radio show sponsored by Paradise Coffee (motto: "It's Heavenly"), falls asleep listening to the announcer, who is doing his best to prove it is "the coffee that makes you sleep." Athanael dreams he is an angel (junior grade) and a trumpeter in the orchestra of Heaven. Due to the praise of his girlfriend Elizabeth (Alexis Smith), the assistant of the deputy chief of the department of small planet management (Guy Kibbee), he is given the mission of destroying planet 339001 (Earth) and its troublesome inhabitants by blowing the "Last Trumpet" at exactly midnight, signaling the end of the world.
When he is deposited at the Hotel Universe via the building's elevator, he accidentally foils a robbery attempt by suave guest Archie Dexter (Reginald Gardiner) and his girlfriend accomplice, Fran Blackstone (Dolores Moran). Dexter blames Fran and breaks off their relationship. When Athanael prevents her attempt at suicide from the hotel's roof, he misses the deadline. Fortunately, Elizabeth persuades her boss to give him a second chance. She travels to Earth to inform him.
Complications arise when two fallen angels named Osidro (Allyn Joslyn) and Doremus (John Alexander), also guests at the hotel, recognize Athanael and learn of his assignment. They want to continue their pleasantly hedonistic life. While Athanael encounters trouble holding onto his trumpet by his inexperience with Earthly life, Osidro and Doremus hire Dexter to steal the instrument. Learning that Fran was rescued by Athanael, Dexter reconciles with her. Then, while she distracts the angel, Dexter's henchman Humphrey (Mike Mazurki), steals the trumpet.
Athanael, Elizabeth and her boss track the thieves to the roof. During a struggle, Athanael falls off the building, only to wake up from his dream.

Tags: romantic

Review:
In his long running radio and television show, Jack Benny often built jokes around THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT--a movie described as so awful that it put an end to his movie career.
And if Benny's film appearances were few and far between after 1945, this was more a matter of his incredibly popular radio and television series than with a lack of offers.THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT is not a great film, but it is a very interesting one and quite often a very entertaining one.
The story concerns a trumpet player (Benny) in love with a harpist (Alexis Smith)--who gets him a radio job on the "Paradise Coffee Program," which advertises a coffee that promises a gentle sleep and sweet dreams.
And dream he does, but one would not call it sweet: he dreams he is an angel sent to earth to blow the trumpet that will destroy the world.Although the script is a bit weak, it has some really great concepts.
Benny, co-star Alexis Smith, and such memorable characters as Franklin Pangborn, Margaret Dumont, and Guy Kibbe perform the show with as much energy as they can muster, and at it's best the movie is hilariously over-the-top.
This film was an ongoing joke with Jack Benny as at the time of its release it took a flop at the box office.
Here is a film with many 1990's themes...angels, the end of the world, great visual effects, sex, and slapstick comedy.
Great performances from Jack Benny, Alexis Smith, and Guy Kibbee as well as a memorable "Looney Tune" style score from the great Franz Waxman.
Jack Benny and a magnificent supporting cast help keep your interest in this lightweight, yet highly imaginative, fanciful comedy about an angel in charge of destroying the Earth.
As other reviewers have noted, this movie bombed at the box office after its release and Benny joked about this fact often in his monologues.
The "fish out of water" sequences where Jack Benny, as an angel, struggles to adjust to the realities of life on earth, are also very funny and timeless.
After all, much of the movie is brilliant: I love how Heaven is set up much like an office building, and all the times Athanael shows how unfamiliar he is with earthly customs (the scene in the restaurant is the best).
How can any comedy with Jack Benny and a supporting cast that includes Margaret Dumont, Reginald Gardiner, John Alexander, Allyn Joslyn, Ethel Griffies, Mike Mazurki, Franklin Pangborn and Guy Kibbe be that bad???Well, it's easy to see why this one just fell short of the mark.
His girlfriend is played by the lovely Alexis Smith who shows a flair for light comedy in this caper.Relying on a succession of sight gags to keep things moving, it's all done in brisk screwball/fantasy style under Raoul Walsh's direction.
Jack Benny WAS stuck in a giant coffee cup and it WAS an extremely funny movie.
and see how Hollywood somehow lost the knack to do this sort of screen chemistry, a pity.But here it is, the picture that Jack Benny loved to joke about; yet it's really a terrific comedy, a rollicking "laff-riot" as the marquees used to shout out in front of the great movie palaces.There's no wasted film here; the gags just keep on coming, and they roll along so quickly that you'll scarcely have time to ponder the subtleties.
See it, and see it again to catch those missed subtleties, and a chance to wallow in its great 1940s art deco sets, swing music and costuming.Don't miss the original "Heavenly Symphony" by the Great Orchestra And Choir In The Sky, and a quick gag cameo by flute-player John Garfield.Mine is one of the many "10" votes on the IMDb ratings list, reinforced by my seeing "Horn" again yesterday and remembering (though I never forgot) just how great a film comedy it is, and how Hollywood used to know how to make us laugh..
Even though I cannot for the life of me wrap my mind around the concept of a coffee that puts you to sleep Jack Benny's The Horn Blows At Midnight is not as bad as the reputation it has.
It was a running gag on his radio and television show that Benny forsook movie making because of the bad reviews the film received.Seeing it today it's not as bad as all that, in fact it has a few funny moments.
In his dream Benny becomes an angel playing trumpet in a heavenly orchestra, larger than anything Leonard Bernstein ever directed.
He gets an assignment from one of the bosses Guy Kibbee to blow his heavenly trumpet at midnight to signal the utter destruction of a minor planet the natives call Earth.Needless to say Benny bungles the job and the film is his effort to complete his assignment.
There are a couple of fallen angels played by Allyn Joslyn and John Alexander who like the life they've got on earth now.
And there's Reginald Gardiner who's a musician and a society burglar with his assistant Dolores Moran who Benny interrupts mid crime and a host of other familiar movie faces which in itself is reason enough to watch The Horn Blows At Midnight.Jack plays some tribute to Harold Lloyd with some stunts at the climax involving some great height.
Jack also becomes rocket man at one point, clearly copying Bob Hope being shot out of a cannon in The Road To Zanzibar.Don't believe the hype about The Horn Blows At Midnight, you might actually like it..
In a dream Nathaniel (Jack Benny) an angle (just one of the masses of angles in a seemingly endless angelic orchestra) is honored by The Chef (Monte Blue) with a unique job of removing a planet (Earth) that destruction is the only redemption.
Will the angel Elizabeth (Alexis Smith) that got him his chance have to save him?This is the movie that I think off when some one mentions Jack Benny.
Decent comedy, which Jack Benny really made fun of throughout the rest of his radio and throughout his TV show.
Raoul Walsh has made better movies, starting with "Regeneration" (filmed on location in Lower Manhattan slums in 1915), but this whimsical comedy, set in heaven and New York City, has two worthy qualities: First: The comedy works, especially the wisecracks (Cop: "Are you looking for trouble, Bud?" Angel: "No, I'm looking for Junior Pulplinsky.") Second: Forget Jack Benny and check out at the supporting cast.This film is one of the best 78 minutes an aspiring film buff could watch to see a collection of great character actors from the 1930s and 1940s: Allyn Joslyn, Reginald Gardner, Guy Kibbee, Margaret Dumont, Dudley Dickerson, Ethel Griffies, Mike Mazurky, James Burke, the under-used blonde dish Dolores Moran, and the endlessly imitable Franklin Pangborn.
Well, in this film, I think Benny did a great job of performing as an angel who played a wicked Horn.
Alexis Smith was very beautiful in this picture and at the height of her career and gave an outstanding performance along with one of the great Comedians who entertained people during the horrible War Years and gave them something to Laugh at and enjoy.
If you like a great classic picture, this is a very good film to sit back and go back in TIME..
Angels were an all-too-familiar sight on movie screens during World War II and perhaps audiences had had enough of it by the time this film came along; this is the only valid reason I can think of to explain its resounding box office failure (that resulted in Benny's premature bowing out of the movies) because, otherwise, it's one of his most enjoyable outings.
In fact, it's quite an original and delightful comedy-fantasy about Benny (playing a second-grade angel and trumpet player) securing an important assignment (being sent to blow up sinful Planet Earth with his horn at the stroke of midnight) through the machinations of his girlfriend (Alexis Smith) who's secretary to the Chief (Guy Kibbee).
Needless to say, he bungles the job when he decides to play Good Samaritan and save a fetching would-be suicide (Dolores Moran) from jumping off the roof of a hotel wherein reside an assortment of colorful characters: smooth-talking crook Reginald Gardiner and his dim-witted bodyguard Mike Mazurki, carousing fallen angels Allyn Joslyn and John Alexander (hilariously suffering an hourly "twinge" for defecting to Earth!) and flustered hotel detective Franklin Pangborn  most of whom, as the appointed hour draws near, end up dangling from the hotel rooftop in the film's wacky climax.
Benny spent the rest of his radio and TV career making fun of this movie but, as I said, its maligned reputation is highly undeserved if you ask me!.
We're told at the beginning of the movie it's a dream, and I quickly lost interest from that point onward.On the other hand, Jack Benny made a 1-hour radio version of this movie for The Ford Theater in 1949.
In spite of a long standing reputation for being an awful film (in no little part due to Jack Benny, himself, making it an ongoing joke in the years to follow its release).
One particular musician, Benny, is particularly inept, blowing wrong notes and eventually allowing himself to be soothed into a daze by the announcer's cooing plaudits of the show's sponsor's coffee.The action shifts to Heaven, where the harried Chief (Guy Kibbee) receives the assignment to demolish the Earth, which has been particularly troublesome of late.
The task involves sending an angel armed with Gabriel's horn to Earth, where, at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, he'll play a simple melody which will end everything.
She arrives and is instantly recognized by the Fallen Angels.Athanael promptly loses the horn as collateral against a huge meal he can't actually pay for, and the rest of the film concerns his trying to  trace it to its new locale and recover it before the stroke of midnight.The ending is a madhouse, with everyone on the hotel's roof, alternately trying to stop Athanael and save their own lives as they sway out over the distant streets below.Benny then awakens in the studio, when his chair tips back and he falls from the bandstand.
A trumpeter (Jack Benny) dreams he's an angel sent to Earth to blow his trumpet at midnight to signal the end of the world.
A notorious flop at the box office, Jack Benny frequently made fun of the failure of this movie on his radio show.
He was using it for comedy, playing it for laughs.)However, it was not a bomb at all, and was a modest success when first released in April 1945.The real reason this movie bombed at the box office was timing.
Almost every family had lost someone near and dear to them in the War, and they didn't want to be reminded of these kinds of things even in a Hollywood movie, at least for a few years until STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN (1947) in beautiful Technicolor starring David Niven and Kim Hunter proved that the postwar era had begun.If only WB had waited until the fall of 1945 to release this, it would have fared much better at the box office and with movie critics far and wide, and given Jack Benny something to be proud of, instead of a long-running gag in his later years.
Comedian Jack Benny spent the second half of his long career poking fun at this film, disparaging it at every opportunity and mocking his performance in it.
For the longest time I believed this was just a joke and that the film wasn't nearly as bad as Jack made it out to be.
THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT is possibly the most ill-advised project Benny ever signed up for, and I say that as a die-hard Benny fan and proud owner of every episode of his radio show.He plays Athaneal, third trumpet player in a radio orchestra, who falls asleep during a broadcast and dreams that he's an angel sent to Earth to blow the last trumpet, signaling the end of the world, at exactly midnight.
Given the premise, the fine supporting cast (Reginald Gardner, Franklin Pangborn, Alexis Smith, Margaret Dumont,Guy Kibbee, Mike Mazurki) and veteran director Raoul Walsh at the helm, this should have been a surefire hit.
On their own these failings cripple the film, but what really sabotages any chance of success for THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT is the casting or - more accurately - the miscasting of Jack Benny.
He could get a bigger laugh out of his patented pause than any punchline, and he was - despite his many apparent character flaws - universally loved by radio audiences.THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT takes advantage of exactly none of these traits, choosing instead to have Benny play a thinly sketched character who looks like Jack Benny but doesn't resemble him at all.
Fans of Jack Benny's radio show will probably have, at least, heard of this movie.
I feel it speaks volumes of Benny's character that he found it so easy to laugh at himself.While it wasn't a great financial success, "Horn" is an amusing enough movie.
Benny plays an angel who is sent to Earth to herald the end of the world.
Benny is thwarted in his efforts by two AWOL angels who live on Earth and don't want to be forced to give up the pleasures of the flesh.While there are many flaws with this movie, it is nevertheless enjoyable and I found myself interested in it from beginning to end.The plot is rather ahead of its time, and strikes a chord with many modern works.
When I first read the plot, I thought of the novel "Good Omens" which was, funnily enough, about an angel and a devil who conspire to stop the end of the world, because they have grown fond of life on Earth.Now, I am going to say something which I imagine many people are going to take issue with: the biggest hindrance to the movie is Jack Benny.
Someone like Jimmy Stewart would have been a much better choice for the role -- but they probably didn't have the budget, and the film was made as a Jack Benny vehicle after all.The bright spot of the movie are the two renegade angels who play their roles quite well and are very funny.
I think its a shame that this, like most Benny films, has not been released on DVD, for while he was not the ideal actor, his movies are almost always worth watching..
All in all, this inventive little comedy was far ahead of its time, and despite Benny's running radio gag, possesses all the underpinnings of a minor cult classic..
well, maybe film just wasn't his medium.Alexis Smith plays Benny's unlikely love interest, and her character isn't really developed - she might as well be made of cardboard.
Very funny Jack Benny comedy.
Jack Benny was a fabulous comedian who was very successful in radio and television, and made a few films.
Benny, however, made a lot of jokes about how it died at the box office.Maybe the film works better today than it did toward the end of World War II, but it's fun to watch.
During a broadcast, Benny falls asleep and dreams he's an angel dispatched to earth to blow a trumpet and start the world's end.
Benny and Smith costar with Franklin Pangborn, Margaret Dumont and Guy Kibbee, all extremely talented at comedy.
Years ago, when Jack Benny wanted to make fun of his movie career, this was usually the film he mentioned.
He is sent to earth to blow the horn that will signal the end of the world.
considering that Carl Stalling of the Termite Terrace cartooning unit at Warner Brothers did some of the music, and the sound effects track used a LOT of stuff from Bugs Bunny cartoons, I think it's a fair question.A FAR better movie than Jack Benny claimed (for years afterward he did jokes about the film, wondering why he didn't get an Oscar), THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT is simply a cartoon for adult audiences, staged with human beings instead of animated drawings.
Jack Benny and cast provide many funny moments in The Horn Blows at Midnight.
After 30 years of just seeing the ending involving that giant coffee pot that Jack Benny ends up in for whatever reason, I finally watched the whole thing on YouTube.
Brother, this was quite hilarious as the picture kept going to various lengths to depict how Benny has to blow his horn (actually, trumpet) by midnight so the world will...oh, watch it if you want to know.
Unique and far underrated film with Jack Benny.
ANd it's that rare time that you'll Jack Benny doing physical comedy.
Franklin Pangborn, with his usual sneers, provides some comedy relief, and Reginald Gardiner is just too Reginald Gardiner to play a villain here.Alexis Smith is wasted as Benny's fellow angel,and Mike Mazursky is his usual heavy-handed henchman.Margaret Dumont's comic gifts are also wasted here, as she appears briefly in two scenes..
Jack Benny's role is the only good part in this film.
Jack Benny's role is almost the sole reason to give this movie five stars, let alone any rating at all.
And, although he doesn't have as much witty dialog as he has in other films, his lines and persona seem just right in "The Horn Blows at Midnight." He is an innocent, naïve, faithful angel (in his dream), who knows nothing about the customs of life on earth.
Jack Benny was a fine comic actor who made some very good comedy films and had one of the longest running radio shows in history (23 plus years from 1932 to 1955).
Well, just because this movie isn't nearly as bad as Jack Benny always made it out to be, doesn't mean it's great.