El crimen de media noche
Cast & Crew
Bernard B. Ray
Ramón Pereda
Adriana Lamar
Juan Torena
José Luis Tortosa
Aura De Silva
Film Details
Synopsis
[The following plot summary is based on the English-language version of this film, Midnight Phantom ; character names refer to that version.] Lieutenant Dan Burke bursts into the office of Police Chief James Sullivan to ask for the hand of his daughter, Diane, and Sullivan acquiesces, although he would have preferred that she marry the eminent criminologist Professor David Graham. Dan is later dispatched to pursue a gang of bank robbers, and when their car crashes, he discovers that his half-brother Johnny was in on the job. Before dying in Dan's arms, Johnny explains that he was broke and didn't know what he was getting into when he joined the gang. Dan makes an attempt to cover up Johnny's identity; however, he is found out and Sullivan demands that Diane break off the engagement. Sullivan later invites Professor Graham to police headquarters to lecture on the science of criminology, and Captain Bill Withers, who has been ordered by Sullivan to prevent Dan from obtaining a marriage license, introduces Graham to the police force. At the midnight lecture in a darkened room, various convicts are brought before Graham, who diagnoses their criminal tendencies with surprising accuracy just from their appearance. When the lights go back on, it appears that Sullivan has had a heart attack and Police Surgeon Kelly, who had recently given Sullivan a clean bill of health, is called in. Graham asserts that Sullivan was murdered with a rare jungle poison affixed to a dart, and suspicion falls on a number of people present at the lecture. Sullivan had recently reorganized the department, eliminating graft and corruption, and a number of police officers had been disgruntled. Mary Ryan, a tough policewoman, had been angry at Sullivan because she believed that he had allowed her daughter Kathleen, who worked as Sullivan's secretary, to become too attached to him, and she subsequently threatened him with a scandal. Dan has a clear-cut motive because Sullivan had forbidden his daughter to marry him, and, in addition, Sullivan had been receiving strange and threatening anonymous phone calls. A needle is eventually found in the room, but as Kelly is about to explain why it could not have been the instrument that killed Sullivan, he collapses to the floor, dead. Graham declares that Dan killed the two men by blowing the poisoned darts out of his cigar, and he explains that Dan's tendency to crime is a hereditary trait which he shared with his half-brother. However, Dan cleverly traces the murder weapon to Graham, and Graham is arrested for the murders. Six months later, while Dan and Diane share a picnic, they read of Graham's execution in the newspaper. Graham confessed in prison that he had diagnosed himself as a criminal, and when he realized that he could not win Diane, he became obsessed with committing the perfect crime.
Director
Bernard B. Ray
Cast
Ramón Pereda
Adriana Lamar
Juan Torena
José Luis Tortosa
Aura De Silva
Jaime Devesa
Rosa Rey
José Peña "pepet"
Lucio Villegas
Carlos Montalbán
Jesús Topete
Ramón Muñoz
Gerardo Gómez
Raúl Lechuga
Israel García
Agustín Guzmán
Carlos De La Paz
Antonio Manfredi
Crew
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This is the Spanish-language version of the 1935 Midnight Phantom, which was directed by Bernard B. Ray and starred Reginald Denny. Both versions were shot simultaneously. The title of the Spanish-language version was translated in reviews as "The Crime at Midnight." The Spanish version was advertised in New York under the title El fantasma de media noche. The running time was calculated from footage in NYSA records.
