The Horn Blows at Midnight: Living or Dead?

About The Horn Blows at Midnight

The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945) is a comedy fantasy film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Jack Benny.

Its biggest claim to fame, apart from its star, is its failure at the box office. In the two decades following its release, Benny often exploited the film's failure for laughs in his popular radio and television comedy series The Jack Benny Program, making the film a well-known entity to his wide audience, even if they had never seen it. The Horn Blows At Midnight would prove to be Benny's final starring feature, although he would continue as a radio and TV star (as well as making cameo appearances in films) for years afterwards.

The Horn Blows At Midnight had the misfortune to be released only eight days after the death of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This may have contributed to its poor reception, although the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel, also dealing with the afterlife, opened on Broadway at roughly the same time and became a hit.