Midnight Lace

Kit Preston has just moved to London. Her husband Tony is a wealthy businessman and they married recently. One evening, crossing a foggy park, she hears a voice. It tells her she will die. There is nobody around. Then the telephone calls start. The same voice, the same words. Kit goes to the police. There is no evidence; nobody else heard the voice, there is no recording and the calls cannot be traced. Those around her begin to think she is exaggerating. Kit starts doubting herself. Then something happens inside the house. David Miller directs. Doris Day plays Kit and Rex Harrison plays Tony; John Gavin and Myrna Loy are in the cast. Doris Day was largely known at the time for musicals and romantic comedy; this part is in an entirely different area. Day found the emotional load of the role heavy and stopped working in the genre after the shoot. The mechanism it builds is not being believed; that nobody credits what the woman says carries the tension. The film was nominated for an Oscar for costume design; the clothes are used inside the narrative as a marker. The London fog and a building under construction are its spaces; both are closed and without exit. The narrative gives its solution late and keeps the number of suspects deliberately high. Its limit is structure; the premise is familiar and the explanation in the last section passes quickly. Who it is for: viewers who like classic thrillers and studio productions of the sixties. Who it is not for: the shape is familiar, the pace uneven, and the ending rushed.