Middle of the Night (1959 Delbert Mann)

Kim Novak is great in nervy, neurotic role (we don't really know why she is that way) against Fredric March as a lovesick older man. All acting good: Glenda Farrell (Kim's mother), Albert Dekker (aging woman-chaser), Martin Balsam, Lee Grant, Edith Meiser (Fred's daughter).

But. Film is very talky, Paddy Chayefsky's material clearly has its source as a play (TV, then Broadway), it's not cinematic, and all the characters are in some way irritating (Q says it's like eating glass). And it's too long. And why do we care about these people? Contrary to our predictions, it does at least have a happy ending - but for how long? That couple are not going to last.

Trivia footnote: there is a scene in a bathroom where we can clearly see a toilet - so much for the claim that Psycho was the first mainstream film to do so.