Burt Lancaster co-wrote and co-directed this suspense story, as well as playing the male lead. After being found guilty of the murder of a man who was having an affair with his wife, one-time police detective Jim Slade (Lancaster) is sentenced to a long stay in prison. Upon his release, his parole officer, Linda (Susan Clark), helps him get a job as a night watchman on a college campus, and Slade finds a place to stay with his friends Quartz and Judy (Cameron Mitchell and Joan Lorring). One night, while making his rounds, Slade discovers the body of Natalie Clayborne (Catherine Bach), an attractive co-ed, and the police's suspicions immediately fall on Ewing (Charles Tyner), a custodian working at the college who possesses an uncomfortable degree of religious fervor. But Slade's instincts as a former detective tell him that Ewing isn't the killer, and he begins doing some digging on his own. Slade's investigation leads him to a particularly damning bit of information -- a tape recording of Natalie in a session with her analyst, in which he confesses that her father, State Senator Clayborne (Morgan Woodward), has been involved in an incestuous relationship with her for some time. Senator Clayborne is a man with no small amount of political power, and Slade discovers that knowing Clayborne's secrets puts him in a position of great danger. The Midnight Man was Lancaster's second (and last) assignment as a director, and his only credit as a screenwriter. Jazz pianist Dave Grusin contributed the musical score.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide