‘Between Midnight and Dawn’ or — Police Harassment?

‘Between Midnight and Dawn’ (1950) has a very odd, and jarring, tonal structure. The lurches from light comedy to full on tragedy are crude and blunt but it’s these switches that also help keep this police flick engaging and the audience, even slightly, on their toes.

The opening act plays out like a typical cops-on-patrol film as we follow, almost in real time, two L.A. policemen, Rocky and Dan, and the unrelated crimes they encounter during a shift of night duty. There’s lots of location shooting and it feels more like we’re hanging out with these two cops than pursuing a clearly defined case.

It’s an interesting glimpse into the streets of Los Angeles and the easy rapport between two war buddies now keeping those streets safe in a different type of uniform. Dan is concerned with catching criminals whilst Rocky is more captivated by the sultry tones of the latest radio operator, Kate, issuing orders to the prowl cars. You can feel the influence of Jules Dassin’s ‘The Naked City’ (1948) on this movie but also how films such as ‘Between Midnight and Dawn’ must’ve influenced, in terms, films and show such as ‘Hill Street Blues’.

And then the film flips into light comedy as Rocky and Dan start flirting (sexually harassing) Kate back at headquarters. This comedic angle only increases when Gale’s mum, with whom Kate still lives, rents the adjoining apartment she owns out to Rocky and Dan with the specific intention of her daughter hooking up with one of them. If I was Kate I’d be looking to escape into another movie.

Once Rocky and Dan move in its typical high jinks as they see which one of them Kate will fall for, even if Kate has made it perfectly clear she’d rather remain single. But this is America in the early Fifties so it’s not as though she’s going to have any actual say in this herself.

To be honest, this is where ‘Between Midnight and Dawn’ threatened to lose me as these two idiots attempt to seduce Kate with awful pick-up lines and inappropriate behaviour. I was ready to write this movie off.

Then, one evening on their night off, Rocky and Dan take Kate to a nightclub owned by a notorious racketeer Ritchie Garris and spy some other shady characters frequenting the bar and, suddenly, the film perks up. “This is a bit like the start of ‘The French Connection’”, I thought.

And, sure enough, the film does perk up and quite significantly. There’s a quite impressive and energetic car chase with some very nice location stunt driving and it culminates in a shocking death that completely upturns the entire movie, drastically changing the tone in the process. All comedy is immediately quenched and ‘Between Midnight and Dawn’ hurtles towards its climax with a surprising amount of violence and grit. There’s one shooting that’s remarkably violent, and not just for the time.

All this isn’t quite enough to lift ‘Between Midnight and Dawn’ into “Classic” status but it gives it all enough weight and heft, which this film’s middle act sorely needed, to turn the movie into a decent, clever, well made “B” Noir. And don’t be fooled by the initially light tone because by the time dawn does finally rise it’s with a melancholy light and a bittersweet taste in the morning air.