Synopsis
Michael Bream (Brook) loves Norma Forbes (Logan), who is the secretary of Childers (McGrail). Norma loves Childers, but when he leaves her, she marries Bream for his money. Realizing why Norma has married him, Bream takes her to a small cabin near his African diamond mine and pretends to be poor. Norma is angry and does not want to stay. Childers and the swaggering mine manager visit, and Norma want to leave with them. Childers refuses to take her, but the manager wants the woman and plans to carry her into the backcountry. Unknown to Norma and Childers, the manager ties up Bream so that he cannot interfere. He seizes Norma and forcibly starts to take her away. Childers shoots him and drives away. Norma stays with her husband. He is still tied up. She shoots a marauding lion that is menacing the helpless Bream. The couple is reconciled, and he reveals his wealth.
Discussion
Midnight Madness, produced by Cecil B. DeMille, has been rarely seen since its original release in 1928. Restoration was completed after a nitrate print was found in New Zealand. The story originated in a play called The Lion Trap, and this origin is evident in the static screenplay and settings. The movie (and presumably the play) is a potboiler version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Jacqueline Logan was a talented, if second rank, silent star. She made over forty silent films from 1921-28, but her career faded with the coming of sound. She made only ten talkies, the last in 1931. Clive Brook had a prolific career in both silent and talking films; he appeared in nearly a hundred films between 1920-63.