This movie is remembered, when it is remembered, as Mario Lanza's screen debut, which it was. He got fourth billing, though, and you can see why. José Iturbi, who was a recognized music personality in the late 1940s, gets a lot of screen time playing the piano, either by himself or with his sister Amparo. Lanza gets a few operatic numbers, in which is he only fair, and some popular tunes, which he sings with a lot more nuance and feeling.My problem with this movie is Kathryn Grayson. In part I don't like her voice, which I find very shrill. In part, though, it's girlish, so it really does not blend with Lanza's, which is very virile. Musically they just don't set off any sparks for me. It's a shame MGM couldn't have found someone more suited to partnering with him.

That Midnight Kiss is a good, solid feature film debut for Lanza, though he went on to do better afterwards. Lanza and classical music/opera fans will find much to love, as an overall film it's good, solid fun but didn't bowl me over.Lanza is the best thing about That Midnight Kiss. One wishes that he had more to sing and that the studio could have been a little bolder with some of the song choices(understandable though because it was a debut, and he was very young at the time, and they didn't want to tax him too early), but all the songs in the film suit him brilliantly, especially They Didn't Believe Me and Una Furtiva Lagrima(he does quite well too with Celeste Aida). He also sounds sensational, one of the loveliest and most distinctive of all tenor voices, singing with warmth, emotion and generous style, and while inexperience(again understandably) occasionally shows, his feature film debut is dashing and truly charming.Kathryn Grayson radiates on screen and sings like an angel, there was the worry that Caro Nome was too big for her but she manages the colouratura well. After hearing mixed opinions on Lanza and Grayson's chemistry, I'm of the opinion that they have a good natural chemistry together. Ethel Barrymore brings incandescent class to her role, looking positively regal and giving her dialogue a witty edge and classy delivery. Keenan Wynn is a lot of fun and Jules Munshin is even funnier. Thomas Gomez fares the best in the comedy department, this said, the best of his comic timing is hilarious. That Midnight Kiss also looks great, with colourful costumes and sets and glowing photography.The other great thing about That Midnight Kiss is the music and songs. There are some operatic favourites here, for soprano and tenor, and they're still fabulous, and They Didn't Believe Me is the highlight of the film. Love is Music is a little sappy though, not the melody seeing as it is based on one of Tchaikovsky's most beautiful melodies but the rather cloying lyric writing. One mustn't also forget about Jose Iturbi, who gets the opportunity to play piano pieces by Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Chopin and does so simply thrillingly, the performance of the Chopin Revolutionary Etude comes off particularly well. The film is also efficiently paced, more than competently directed and has a mostly winning script with a lot of heart and genuinely funny humour, if occasionally laying it a little thick with the schmaltz and once or twice the comedy is ever so slightly overplayed.Coming off the least well is the story. It's not a disaster as it knows what tone it wanted to be, light and fun, and sticks to it without jumping around or changing tone discordantly. It is however as thin as a wafer, which is true of a lot of MGM musicals at this time, and does feel at times on the too silly and too frothy side, you can also painfully and correctly predict what is going to happen next.All in all, a good feature film debut for Lanza, who along with the music is the film's selling point. 7/10 Bethany Cox

A young Mario Lanza. A young Kathryn Grayson. Ethel Barrymore. Keenan Wynn. Jules Munshin hamming it up as only he can.Plotwise, the movie is very thin: Grandmother finances an opera company so her young granddaughter can sing. Except, she doesn't want to sing with the old, fat tenor with the ego-- she wants to sing with the young, gifted truck driver she discovers. Then there's a love triangle, in which of course everything goes wrong because nobody communicates.But the singing is so wonderful, and so are Jose Iturbi's piano skills. We are treated to plenty of both throughout the movie. This film is a gem.

For Mario Lanza's first feature film role it wasn't much of an acting stretch for him. He played exactly who he was an opera singing truck-driver from South Philadelphia. Mario would have been 28 at the time That Midnight Kiss came out and that is his approximate age right here.Of course in real life he wasn't discovered by the granddaughter of another real life noted Philadelphian, Ethel Barrymore. As the plot would have it, Kathryn Grayson finds Mario playing on the piano and singing an old Italian song Mama Che Vio Sape. Grayson's got singing talent herself in abundance and when you're from the Philadelphia Main Line you've got a grandmother who's willing to start a production company built around her. Of course to make sure it makes a little money you want a name tenor like Thomas Gomez as opposed to some unknown truck-driver.Kathryn would rather make music with Mario both on and off the stage. The story with a few of the usual Hollywood romantic complications shows how they get to do just that.Mario and Kathryn sang a good collection of classical and popular selections. My favorite recording of Jerome Kern's first great hit song They Didn't Believe Me is from Mario's original cast album of That Midnight Kiss. It's a solo recording, on screen it's done with Grayson and done just as beautifully. MGM made a good choice in including that great song in this film.A good cast of MGM regulars supported Mario and Kathryn that included Keenan Wynn as Lanza's friend and Jules Munshin as the manager of the opera company. Best in the supporting cast however is Thomas Gomez as the egotistical tenor Lanza replaces. Gomez utilizes some seldom tapped comedy talent for this role.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer engineered a very auspicious debut for their new singing discovery in That Midnight Kiss.