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| History Is Made At Night (1937) Starring Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur |
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History is Made at Night has been described as a romantic tragedy, which it indeed is, up to a point. The film begins deceptively in screwball-comedy fashion with socialite Jean Arthur and handsome head waiter Charles Boyer "meeting cute." But there's nothing cute about Arthur's estranged husband, shipbuilder Colin Clive. Insanely jealous, Clive arranges for the ship on which his wife and her lover are travelling to hit an iceberg--then, aghast at what he has done, Clive commits suicide. As the ship lists dangerously close to sinking beneath the waves, the terrified passengers--Boyer and Arthur included--huddle on the deck. The fog-enshrouded scene in which Charles and Jean affirm their love in the face of death is among the most heartrending sequences ever filmed (the director was Frank Borzage, a past master at transforming potential maudlin material into high-gloss art). Even the happy ending of History is Made at Night does not diminish the power and poignancy of that shipboard scene. |
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Director: Frank Borzage Writers: Gene Towne, C. Graham Baker (screen play)
Stars: Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo, Colin Clive
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The Hindenburg is mentioned as (successfully) completing a transatlantic trip, with the husband on board. This movie was released (USA) March 5, 1937. The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937. It never made that return flight to Europe. |
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Frank Borzage won Oscars for Bad Girl (1931) and 7th Heaven (1927) and he won the Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 1961. Borzage's trademark was intense identification with the feelings of young lovers in the face of adversity, with love in his films triumphing over such trials as World War I, disability, the Depression, here a thinly disguised version of the Titanic disaster, and the rise of Nazism. |
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Screenwriter C. Graham Baker and his father were the inventors of Gin Rummy. He won accolades for writing the Western Four Faces West in 1948. He died after receiving brain surgery. |
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Charles Boyer won an honorary Academy Award in 1843 for his progressive cultural achievement in establishing the French Research Foundation in Los Angeles as a source of reference. He was nominated for Conquest (1937), Algiers (1938), Gaslight (1944) and Fanny (1961) and was nominated for a Golden Globe for The Happy Time (1952). |
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Jean Arthur was nominated for an Oscar for The More The Merrier (1943) and won the Sour Apple Award in 1942 for Least Cooperative Actress. |
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Colin Clive died shortly after this film was released. He was best know for his role in Frankenstein (1931) and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) but was also very good in Journey's End (1930) and One More River (1934). He was a direct descendant of Clive of India and intended to pursue a career in the military, but a fall from a horse shattered those plans. This may be part of the reason for the long history of alcoholism that followed and ultimately contributed to his death. He had a lead role in Clive of India (1935) but Ronald Colman played the role of Robert Clive. |
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In the beginning of his career Boyer's beautiful voice was hidden by the silent movies but in Hollywood he became famous for his whispered declarations of love (like in movies with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich or Ingrid Bergman). In 1934 he married Pat Paterson, his first and (unusual for a star) only wife. He was so faithful to her that he decided to commit suicide two days after her death in 1978. |
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Boyer and his wife had one son who also committed suicide in 1965. He apparently played Russian roulette with a .38-caliber revolver after quarreling with a girlfriend. |
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