Midnight Lace (1960)

 

Synopsis From Rotten Tomatoes:

When the American wife of a wealthy London-based financier starts receiving frightening phone calls, she believes her life is in danger, but when she protests to her family following a near-fatal accident, they and the police doubt her claims and even her sanity. 

I'm not sure when I first watched Midnight Lace, but the scene with Doris Day in a fog-filled park while an invisible stalker whispers death threats stayed with me for years. It's one of those scenes that sends chills up your spine, and Doris Day absolutely sold me on her fear and panic as her life was being threatened.

As a kid, I grew up on the Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies, so I wasn't expecting her performance as a woman whose life is slowly unraveling to be so captivating, as I had prejudged the type of actress she was based on my limited knowledge of her. She was mesmerizing — just staying this side of paranoid madness.

The supporting cast is just as good — but what would you expect from Rex Harrison, an actor who can swing between hero and villain effortlessly? Watching Myrna Loy as Aunt Bea reminds me of just how little the studios made use of her gifts as she aged. She was brilliant in the 1930s, and she was just as good here, albeit in a much smaller role than she deserved. John Gavin, despite his politics, was a talented actor who drew an audience in and never let them go. I'm pretty sure it had just as much to do with his good looks as it did with his talent — he was always easy on the eyes. His performance in Midnight Lace as the man who swoops in and saves the day could give some of our current action heroes a point or two.

If you've had the pleasure of watching Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder or Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number — two of my favorite movies — it's not hard to guess who's behind the murderous scheme. But don't let that stop you from watching Midnight Lace — it's a thrilling romp through the streets of London, and Doris Day proves she was more than a brilliant romcom actress. It's just sad that she didn't do more movies like this, because I would have become just as addicted to them as I am to this one.