Plot
Childhood friends Rocky Barnes and Dan Purvis are Los Angeles prowl-car cops on night duty. Barnes is easygoing while Purvis is a cynic who disdains all lawbreakers. Both men are attracted to radio communicator Kate Mallory, but she is reluctant to become involved with policemen, her cop father having been killed in the line of duty. After several pushes from her mother, she eventually falls for Barnes.
Barnes and Purvis arrest murderous racketeer Ritchie Garris, who then swears vengeance against them. Garris escapes from prison and shoots Barnes in the face several times. After months of hiding from the police, Garris finally believes that it is safe to collect to his girlfriend Terry Romaine and then flee to Mexico. The police, who have been surveilling Romaine's apartment, quickly approach Garris. In a desperate attempt for his freedom, he takes a neighbor girl hostage. Purvis launches a daring solo raid, but while his smoke bomb separates the hostage from Garris, it also disorients Purvis, allowing Garris to gain the upper hand. At the last minute, Romaine jumps in front of Garris' bullet, saving Purvis' life and forcing the him to rethink his cynicism.
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "If you want to know how the policemen who ride the prowl cars spend their time—if not in actuality, at least in a Hollywood film—then sit yourself down before a picture entitled 'Between Midnight and Dawn' ... By this explosive exhibition, you may not be literally informed, but you'll certainly be fairly treated to a fast cops-and-robbers show. Let us advise you, however, that the general disposition of the cops and the brand of romance in this picture is on a studiously juvenile plane." [1]
Reviewer Marjory Adams of The Boston Globe wrote: "Personally, I don't imagine that there are many such sensational stories in our police annals as we see in Hollywood films, but the preference of many film-goers for this kind of cinema is unquestioned. No realism or authenticity, but a lot of shooting and the dirty villain behind bars or bleeding out his final moments with the police in triumph at last." [3]
Writing in the San Francisco Examiner , critic Barbara East mentioned that the film "... is a good lesson for the uninitiated in the operation of the police department of a metropolitan city and it is also a better than average cops and robbers yarn" and concluded: "'Between Midnight and Dawn' isn't the best picture in the world but it is a good one and it gives the policeman, whose job is often minimized and ridiculed, his fair share of the glory spotlight." [4]
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