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The Other Side of Midnight (film)
Encyclopedia
The Other Side of Midnight is a 1977 American film directed by Charles Jarrott
and starring Marie-France Pisier
, John Beck
and Susan Sarandon
. Herman Raucher
wrote the screenplay for the film based on Sidney Sheldon
's 1973 novel of the same name
.
France, Noelle Page (Marie-France Pisier
), a young and attractive French woman, falls in love with Larry Douglas (John Beck
), an American
pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force
stationed in France. The couple has a torrid love affair that ends abruptly when Larry receives orders to return to the United States. Larry promises Noelle that he will come back for her and marry her. She later finds out that she's pregnant with his child. However, he never comes back and Noelle becomes very bitter.
Vowing revenge, Noelle begins using men for their money and power. She becomes a famous European actress and ultimately the mistress of one of the world's wealthiest men, Greek tycoon Constantin Demeris (Raf Vallone
), whom she does not love.
In the meantime, Larry is married to Catherine Alexander Douglas (Susan Sarandon
), a beautiful and trusting young woman from Chicago
. Larry meets her while serving in the Pacific theatre as a United States Army Air Force fighter pilot. He seduces Catherine with some of the same lines he had used with Noelle.
After the war, Larry works for various civilian airlines. Noelle hires a detective to keep tabs on him, then sabotages any job Larry is able to find. She then schemes to hire Larry to come to Greece and become a pilot for her private jet
.
Larry fails to recognize her. Noelle treats him rudely until Larry is not sure how much more he can take. He bursts into Noelle's hotel suite and they rekindle their romance. Larry claims he will keep his long-ago promise and stay with her, leaving Catherine. But when his wife refuses a request for a divorce, Larry and Noelle begin to plan Catherine’s murder.
They carry out their plan, but things go wrong. Larry and Noelle ultimately are convicted of murder by a Greek court, which is under the influence of Demeris. They are executed by a firing squad. Catherine has miraculously survived. Suffering from shock, she ends up living in a convent, under the patronage of Constantin Demeris.
, since the book was very successful, anticipation was that the film would translate to success at the box office
and it resulted in 20th Century Fox
heavily promoting the film. The studio was promoting Star Wars
at the same time, even as it was controversial for its growing expense.
Fearing that Star Wars would be a flop, the studio made a peremptory decision to grant prints of The Other Side of Midnight — a 2-hour, 45-minute long feature with sex and nudity — only to those theaters that agreed to book Star Wars as well.
Ultimately, in spite of the former's massive critical acclaim, The Other Side of Midnight proved to be the box office failure. Despite the controversy surrounding the huge expense involved in the making of Star Wars, the latter ultimately grossed a then-record $237m in North America in its first run and would eventually spawn a multi-media franchise
that continues to this day.
, director Charles Jarrott
and author Sidney Sheldon
, led by film historian Laurent Bouzereau, a stills gallery, and the film's theatrical trailer.
Charles Jarrott
Charles Jarrott was a British film and television director. He was best known for costume dramas he directed for producer Hal B...
and starring Marie-France Pisier
Marie-France Pisier
Marie-France Pisier was a French actress. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Life and career:...
, John Beck
John Beck (actor)
John Beck is an American actor. He grew up in Joliet, Illinois. Renowned as a gritty actor with plenty of presence on set, he is ultimately best-known worldwide for playing the role of Mark Graison in Dallas during the mid-1980s, but is also well-known for several other roles in which he...
and Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
. Herman Raucher
Herman Raucher
Herman Raucher is an American author who has written several screenplays, among them the popular Summer of '42 and The Great Santini and several novels and plays...
wrote the screenplay for the film based on Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...
's 1973 novel of the same name
The Other Side of Midnight
The Other Side of Midnight is a novel by American writer Sidney Sheldon published in 1973. The book reached No.1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. It was made into a 1977 motion picture of the same name, directed by Charles Jarrott. The cast included Marie-France Pisier, John Beck, Susan...
.
Plot
In World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
France, Noelle Page (Marie-France Pisier
Marie-France Pisier
Marie-France Pisier was a French actress. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Life and career:...
), a young and attractive French woman, falls in love with Larry Douglas (John Beck
John Beck (actor)
John Beck is an American actor. He grew up in Joliet, Illinois. Renowned as a gritty actor with plenty of presence on set, he is ultimately best-known worldwide for playing the role of Mark Graison in Dallas during the mid-1980s, but is also well-known for several other roles in which he...
), an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
The history of the Royal Canadian Air Force begins in 1920, when the air force was created as the Canadian Air Force . In 1924 the CAF was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force and granted royal sanction by King George V. The RCAF existed as an independent service until 1968...
stationed in France. The couple has a torrid love affair that ends abruptly when Larry receives orders to return to the United States. Larry promises Noelle that he will come back for her and marry her. She later finds out that she's pregnant with his child. However, he never comes back and Noelle becomes very bitter.
Vowing revenge, Noelle begins using men for their money and power. She becomes a famous European actress and ultimately the mistress of one of the world's wealthiest men, Greek tycoon Constantin Demeris (Raf Vallone
Raf Vallone
Raffaele "Raf" Vallone was an Italian footballer, actor and an international film star.Born in Tropea, Calabria, the son of a lawyer, Vallone attended Liceo classico Cavour in Turin, and studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Turin and entered his father's law firm...
), whom she does not love.
In the meantime, Larry is married to Catherine Alexander Douglas (Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
), a beautiful and trusting young woman from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Larry meets her while serving in the Pacific theatre as a United States Army Air Force fighter pilot. He seduces Catherine with some of the same lines he had used with Noelle.
After the war, Larry works for various civilian airlines. Noelle hires a detective to keep tabs on him, then sabotages any job Larry is able to find. She then schemes to hire Larry to come to Greece and become a pilot for her private jet
Business jet
Business jet, private jet or, colloquially, bizjet is a term describing a jet aircraft, usually of smaller size, designed for transporting groups of up to 19 business people or wealthy individuals...
.
Larry fails to recognize her. Noelle treats him rudely until Larry is not sure how much more he can take. He bursts into Noelle's hotel suite and they rekindle their romance. Larry claims he will keep his long-ago promise and stay with her, leaving Catherine. But when his wife refuses a request for a divorce, Larry and Noelle begin to plan Catherine’s murder.
They carry out their plan, but things go wrong. Larry and Noelle ultimately are convicted of murder by a Greek court, which is under the influence of Demeris. They are executed by a firing squad. Catherine has miraculously survived. Suffering from shock, she ends up living in a convent, under the patronage of Constantin Demeris.
Cast
- Marie-France PisierMarie-France PisierMarie-France Pisier was a French actress. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Life and career:...
as Noelle Page - John BeckJohn Beck (actor)John Beck is an American actor. He grew up in Joliet, Illinois. Renowned as a gritty actor with plenty of presence on set, he is ultimately best-known worldwide for playing the role of Mark Graison in Dallas during the mid-1980s, but is also well-known for several other roles in which he...
as Larry Douglas - Susan SarandonSusan SarandonSusan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
as Catherine Alexander Douglas - Raf ValloneRaf ValloneRaffaele "Raf" Vallone was an Italian footballer, actor and an international film star.Born in Tropea, Calabria, the son of a lawyer, Vallone attended Liceo classico Cavour in Turin, and studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Turin and entered his father's law firm...
as Constantin Demeris - Clu GulagerClu GulagerClu Gulager is an American television and film actor. He is particularly noted for his co-starring role as William H. Bonney in the 1960–62 NBC TV series The Tall Man and for his role in the later NBC series The Virginian...
as Bill Fraser - Christian MarquandChristian MarquandChristian Marquand was a French director, actor and screenwriter working in French cinema. A native of Marseille, he was born to a Spanish father and an Arabic mother his sister was film director Nadine Trintignant, and he can be seen as a heartthrob in French movies of the 1950s.His first film...
as Armand Gautier - Michael LernerMichael Lerner (actor)-Life and career:Lerner was born in Brooklyn, New York of Romanian Jewish descent, the son of Blanche and George Lerner, who was a fisherman and antiques dealer. He was raised in Bensonhurst and Red Hook. His brother, Ken Lerner, is also an actor...
as Barbet - Sorrell BookeSorrell BookeSorrell Booke was an American actor who performed on stage, screen, and television. He is best known for his role as the heavyset, corrupt politician "Boss" Hogg in the television show The Dukes of Hazzard....
as Lanchon - Antony Ponzini as Paul Metaxas
- Louis ZorichLouis ZorichLouis Zorich is an American actor. He is well-known for his portrayal of Paul Reiser's father "Burt Buchman" in the NBC series Mad About You. He played the role from 1993 to 1999.-Life and career:...
as Demonides - Charles CioffiCharles CioffiCharles Cioffi , also credited as Charles M. Cioffi, is an American movie and television actor.-Biography:He was born in New York City and attended Michigan State University, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity....
as Chotas - Dimitra ArlissDimitra ArlissDimitra Arliss , sometimes credited as Dimitra Arlys, is an American actress.Arliss became noticed after appearing in Arthur L. Kopit's Broadway play Indians in the 1960s in which she played a Native American character who spoke with an Italian accent...
as Sister Theresa
The Star Wars connection
According to the documentary Empire of DreamsEmpire of Dreams
Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy is a 2004 documentary film directed by Kevin Burns and narrated by Robert Clotworthy. It documents the making of the original Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope , Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back , and Star Wars...
, since the book was very successful, anticipation was that the film would translate to success at the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
and it resulted in 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
heavily promoting the film. The studio was promoting Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
at the same time, even as it was controversial for its growing expense.
Fearing that Star Wars would be a flop, the studio made a peremptory decision to grant prints of The Other Side of Midnight — a 2-hour, 45-minute long feature with sex and nudity — only to those theaters that agreed to book Star Wars as well.
Ultimately, in spite of the former's massive critical acclaim, The Other Side of Midnight proved to be the box office failure. Despite the controversy surrounding the huge expense involved in the making of Star Wars, the latter ultimately grossed a then-record $237m in North America in its first run and would eventually spawn a multi-media franchise
Media franchise
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
that continues to this day.
Home media
On March 6, 2007, approximately 30 years after the film was released in theaters, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released The Other Side of Midnight on DVD for the first time as part of Fox's Cinema Classics Collection. The DVD includes a commentary discussion with producer Frank YablansFrank Yablans
Frank Yablans is an American film producer and screenwriter The son of a Brooklyn cab driver and brother to fellow film producer Irwin Yablans, Yablans' first employers in the film business included Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company and Filmways...
, director Charles Jarrott
Charles Jarrott
Charles Jarrott was a British film and television director. He was best known for costume dramas he directed for producer Hal B...
and author Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon was an Academy Award-winning American writer. His TV works spanned a 20-year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show , I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart , but he became most famous after he turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master of the Game ,...
, led by film historian Laurent Bouzereau, a stills gallery, and the film's theatrical trailer.