Hollywood in 1977 was a weird place. You had Star Wars changing the world on one end of the spectrum, and on the other, you had these massive, sweeping, slightly tawdry "event" films based on airport novels. 20th Century Fox put a massive bet on Sidney Sheldon’s bestseller, thinking they had the next Gone with the Wind. They didn't. But while the movie itself is often remembered as a bloated melodrama that nearly sank under the weight of its own runtime, the cast of the Other Side of Midnight is a fascinating study in "what could have been."
It was a mix of European arthouse pedigree and American soap opera intensity. You’ve got Marie-France Pisier, an icon of the French New Wave, sharing scenes with John Beck, a guy who looked like he was carved out of a block of California granite. It’s a strange chemistry. Honestly, it shouldn’t work. Sometimes it doesn't. But looking back at it now, the sheer commitment these actors brought to a plot involving world wars, international trials, and a very specific obsession with revenge is actually kind of impressive.
The tragic magnetism of Marie-France Pisier
If you’re talking about the cast of the Other Side of Midnight, you have to start with Marie-France Pisier. She played Noelle Page. At the time, she was a darling of French cinema, having worked with legends like François Truffaut. Casting her was a high-brow move for a movie that was, let's be real, a high-budget potboiler.
Pisier had this incredible ability to look fragile and dangerous at the exact same time. Her character’s journey from a poor girl in Marseille to a world-famous actress and mistress of a Greek tycoon is the backbone of the entire three-hour slog. She didn't just play the role; she lived in it. There’s a specific scene where she realizes she’s been abandoned in Paris, and the look in her eyes is genuinely haunting. She wasn't just playing "angry"—she was playing a woman whose entire world had been liquidated.
People often forget how much of a risk she took. Moving from the prestige of French cinema to a Hollywood blockbuster that critics eventually shredded was a bold play. She was the best thing in the movie. Even when the dialogue got clunky—and boy, did it get clunky—she managed to maintain a level of dignity that the script didn't always provide.
John Beck and the "American Pilot" archetype
Then there’s John Beck. He played Larry Douglas, the hotshot pilot who breaks Noelle’s heart and sets the whole revenge plot in motion. Beck was everywhere in the 70s. He had that classic, rugged look that casting directors obsessed over. In The Other Side of Midnight, he had to play a guy who was charming enough to make two women ruin their lives for him, but also enough of a jerk that we actually want to see him face the music.
📖 Related: Isaiah Washington Movies and Shows: Why the Star Still Matters
It’s a tough tightrope. If he’s too likable, the revenge feels mean. If he’s too much of a villain, you wonder why anyone liked him in the first place. Beck leaned into the flyboy arrogance. Watching him now, he feels like a relic of a very specific era of masculinity. He was tall, tan, and seemingly unaware of the emotional wreckage he left behind. It’s a solid performance, even if he was overshadowed by Pisier’s intensity.
Susan Sarandon before she was "Susan Sarandon"
This is the part that usually shocks people when they revisit the film. A young Susan Sarandon is a key member of the cast of the Other Side of Midnight. She played Catherine Alexander, the "other" woman—the sweet, wholesome American who marries Larry and gets caught in Noelle’s web.
This was 1977. Sarandon had done The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but she wasn't yet the powerhouse we know today. You can see the flashes of brilliance, though. She plays the vulnerability of Catherine without making her feel like a total doormat. It’s a thankless role in many ways because the audience is usually more interested in Noelle’s glamorous revenge than Catherine’s domestic struggles. Still, Sarandon brings a groundedness to the film that it desperately needs. Without her, the movie would just be a series of beautiful people screaming at each other in expensive rooms.
Raf Vallone and the weight of old world cinema
You can't ignore Raf Vallone. He played Constantin Demeris, the Greek tycoon. Vallone was a titan of Italian cinema, and he brought a massive amount of "gravitas" to the set. When he’s on screen, the movie feels more like a classic tragedy and less like a soap opera. He had this way of commanding a room just by standing still.
His character is essentially the puppet master. He knows everything. He sees everything. Vallone played Demeris with a quiet, simmering power that made the ending of the film—which is famously dark—feel earned. He represented the "old world" morality that eventually crushes the younger, more impulsive characters.
👉 See also: Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett: Why Fans Are Still Divided Over the Daimyo of Tatooine
Why the cast couldn't save the film from the critics
Despite having a roster of talented actors, the film was panned. Why? Mostly because it was just too much. It was too long, too melodramatic, and it had the misfortune of opening right around the same time as a little movie called Star Wars.
The studio actually thought The Other Side of Midnight would be their big winner that year. They even forced theaters to take Star Wars as a "package deal" if they wanted the Sidney Sheldon adaptation. It’s one of the great ironies of Hollywood history. The "sure thing" flopped, and the "space movie" changed history.
But the failure wasn't the fault of the cast of the Other Side of Midnight. They did exactly what was asked of them. They leaned into the grandiosity. They wore the fur coats and the pilot uniforms and delivered the lines about love and death with total sincerity.
- The pacing was the real villain. The movie tries to cover decades of time and multiple continents.
- The tone shifted wildly. One minute it’s a war movie, the next it’s a courtroom drama, then it’s a romance.
- The ending was a "downer." In an era where audiences were starting to crave escapism and "the hero's journey," The Other Side of Midnight offered a bleak, cynical conclusion where nobody really wins.
The supporting players you probably missed
There are some great character actors tucked away in the credits. Clu Gulager shows up. Christian Marquand is there. Even a young Josette Banzet, who actually won a Golden Globe for her performance in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man right around that time, has a role.
These smaller performances help fill out the world. They make the Marseille docks feel real and the Parisian salons feel lived-in. Even if the main plot feels like a fever dream, the world-building is surprisingly solid because the supporting cast treated the material with respect.
✨ Don't miss: Why Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Actors Still Define the Modern Spy Thriller
How to watch it today (and why you should)
If you’re going to dive into this movie, don’t expect a fast-paced thriller. Go into it for the performances. Watch Marie-France Pisier’s face during her final scenes. Look at the way the cinematography tries to turn every shot of the actors into a painting. It’s a "maximalist" film.
You can usually find it on physical media or the occasional deep-catalog streaming service. It’s a snapshot of a moment in time when Hollywood thought "bigness" was the same thing as "greatness."
Practical Steps for Film Buffs:
- Compare the book to the film: Sidney Sheldon's writing is lean and fast. The movie is the opposite. It’s a great lesson in how "faithful" adaptations can sometimes lose the spirit of the source material by being too literal.
- Watch Pisier’s French work: If you like her in this, go watch Love on the Run (L'amour en fuite). You'll see the range she was capable of outside the Hollywood machine.
- Check out the 1970s "Bestseller" trend: To really understand why this movie exists, look into other 70s adaptations like The Deep or Rich Man, Poor Man. It was a specific vibe that has mostly disappeared from modern cinema, moving instead to limited series on HBO or Netflix.
- Note the costume design: Beyond the cast, the costumes are a character in themselves. They tell the story of Noelle’s rising power more effectively than some of the dialogue does.
The cast of the Other Side of Midnight remains a testament to a very specific kind of 1970s ambition. It was a movie that wanted to be everything to everyone—a romance, a war epic, a legal thriller. While it might have failed to conquer the box office, the actors involved gave us something far more interesting than a standard blockbuster: a beautiful, messy, deeply committed piece of cinema history that still sparks debate among film historians today.