A Feast at Midnight Movie Review

The posters for A Feast at Midnight are evocative of the heady days when Christopher Lee reigned supreme at Hammer Studios: “A 500-year-old school. A prehistoric form master…And a 10-year-old chef.” The 10-year-old chef is Freddie Findlay, who is introduced as Magnus with this film. Lee is Major Longfellow (AKA Raptor), his mean Latin professor. And the 500-year-old school? The production company paid a visit to a boarding school in England, inquiring if they could use the school as an elaborate set for a five-week shooting schedule during the spring holidays. The producers then cast the students in the picture, and A Feast at Midnight was ready for the front burner. The premise is that Magnus is miserable at boarding school; he's no good at sports and the other boys bully him. Magnus IS good at one thing: creating elaborate desserts in the kitchen for a secret eating club called the Scoffers. The lighter-than-air story is enacted with great sweetness by the kids, and yes, this one WILL make you hungry. It's a charmer. (And it's a treat to see Christopher Lee in a movie, even if he isn't playing a vampire!)

1995 185m/C AU Christopher Lee, Robert Hardy, Edward Fox, Freddie Findlay, Lisa Faulkner, Samuel West; D: Justin Hardy; W: Justin Hardy, Yoshi Nishio; C: Tim Maurice-Jones; M: David A. Hughes, John Murphy.