Night and Day (1946)

47% of users liked it
(2,229 ratings)

Faced with the challenge of writing a screenplay based on the life of fabulously wealthy, fabulously successful composer Cole Porter, one Hollywood wag came up with a potential story angle: "How does the S.O.B. make his second million dollars?" By the time the Porter biopic Night and Day was… More Faced with the challenge of writing a screenplay based on the life of fabulously wealthy, fabulously successful composer Cole Porter, one Hollywood wag came up with a potential story angle: "How does the S.O.B. make his second million dollars?" By the time the Porter biopic Night and Day was released, the three-person scriptwriting team still hadn't come up with a compelling storyline, though the film had the decided advantages of star Cary Grant and all that great Porter music. Roughly covering the years 1912 to 1946, the story begins during Porter's undergraduate days at Yale University, where he participated in amateur theatricals under the tutelage of waspish professor Monty Woolley (who plays himself). Though Porter's inherited wealth could have kept him out of WWI, he insists upon signing up as an ambulance driver. While serving in France, he meets nurse Linda Lee (Alexis Smith), who will later become his wife. Focusing his attentions on Broadway and the London stage in the postwar years, Porter pens an unbroken string of hit songs, including "Just One of Those Things," "You're the Top," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Begin the Beguine," and the title number. The composition of this last-named song is one of the film's giddy highlights, as Porter, inspired by the "drip drip drip" of an outsized rainstorm, runs to the piano and cries "I think I've got it!" The film's dramatic conflict arises when Porter is crippled for life in a polo accident. Refusing to have his legs amputated, he makes an inspiring comeback, even prompting a WWI amputee to remark upon his courage! Corny and unreliable as biography, Night and Day is redeemed by the guest appearances of musical luminaries Mary Martin (doing a spirited if disappointingly demure version of her striptease number "My Heart Belongs to Daddy") and Ginny Simms, the latter cast as an ersatz Ethel Merman named Carole Hill. Jane Wyman, seen as Porter's pre-nuptial sweetheart Gracie Harris, also gets to sing and dance, and quite well indeed. Beset with production problems, not least of which was the ongoing animosity between star Grant and director Michael Curtiz, Night and Day managed to finish filming on schedule, and proved to be an audience favorite -- except for those "in the know" Broadwayites who were bemused over the fact that Cole Porter's well-known homosexuality was necessarily weaned from the screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 8 min.
Directed By: Michael Curtiz
Written By: Charles Hoffman, Leo Townsend
Genres: Drama, Musical & Performing Arts, Classics

In Theaters: Aug 3, 1946 Wide
On DVD: Jun 1, 2004
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Critic Reviews

Douglas Pratt, DVDLaser
a notorious example of the fantasizing Hollywood freely dealt to contemporary reality, but its strength comes from the use of close to two dozen Porter songs, so that the narrative, in which Porter is always too busy with his next Broadway show to spend q
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Laughably sanitized biopic.

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Featured Audience Ratings

moon r

Typical Hollywood hard sell designed to keep you from thinking too long on the fact that you're actually getting very little. So there's oodles of scantily clad dancing girls in Technicolor (in typically extravagant, over-the-top MGM Busby Berkely inspired dance numbers -… More
Typical Hollywood hard sell designed to keep you from thinking too long on the fact that you're actually getting very little. So there's oodles of scantily clad dancing girls in Technicolor (in typically extravagant, over-the-top MGM Busby Berkely inspired dance numbers - which ain't bad at all = one star), lotsa close-ups of Grant (one star), and of course those unforgettable Porter songs (the only real reason to see this), used even as background music when not being used as centerpieces (one star). Its very, very shiny, but that's all.
AJ V

Grant plays Cole Porter in this biography of his life. It features many of his hit songs too. If you're a fan of either Grant or Porter, you will enjoy this movie.
jay n

Almost total fabrication of Cole Porter's life, but you can't beat the music and even though Cary Grant is unusually stiff in the title role the rest of the cast is fun, especially Jane Wyman in one of her last light hearted and blonde roles.

Cast

            John Alvin as Petey

            Cary Grant as Cole Porter

            Alexis Smith as Linda Lee Porter

            Eve Arden as Gabrielle

            Monty Woolley as Himself

            Herman Bing as "Peaches"

            Jane Wyman as Gracie Harris

            Paul Cavanagh as Bart McClelland

            Tom D'Andrea as Bernie

            Dorothy Malone as Nancy

            Mary Martin as Herself

            Victor Francen as Anatole Giron

            Howard Freeman as Producer

            Alan Hale as Leon Dowling

            Milada Mladova as Specialty dancer

            Clarence Muse as Porter

            Carlos Ramirez as Specialty singer

            George Riley as O'Halloran

            Selena Royle as Kate Porter

            Sig Rumann as Willowsky

            Ginny Simms as Carole Hill

            Henry Stephenson as Omar Cole

            Bobby Watson as Director

            Donald Woods as Ward Blackburn

            George Zoritch as Specialty dancer

            Lynne Baggett as Sexboat

            Edward Biby as Surgeon

            George Boyce as Stage Manager

            Harlan Briggs as Doorman

            Peter Camlin as French Lieutenant

            Hobart Cavanaugh
            
            Chester Clute as Music Publisher

            John Compton
            
            Joyce Compton as Chorine

            Harry Crocker as Newspaperman

            Frank Dae
            
            Boyd Davis as Dean

            Fern Emmett as Secretary

            Herbert Evans as Bobby

            Frank Ferguson as Tina's father

            Sam Flint
            
            Gene Garrick as Soldier

            Lisa Golm
            
            Buddy Gorman as English Page Boy

            Creighton Hale
            
            Edna M. Harris
            
            Hans Herbert as Headwaiter

            Rune Hultman as American Lieutenant

            Boyd Irwin
            
            Gladden James
            
            Eddie Kane as Headwaiter

            Colin Kenny as Doorman

            George Kirby as Cab Driver

            Joe Kirkwood Jr. as Classmate

            Ellen Lowe
            
            Frank Marlowe as Army Driver

            Jo Ann Marlowe as Tina

            Tom McGuire
            
            Bob McKenzie as Hansom Cab Driver

            Claire Meade
            
            George Meader as Minister

            Bert Moorhouse
            
            Jack Mower as Livery Chauffeur

            Gregory Muradian as Small Caroler

            George Nokes as Wayne Blackburn Child

            Vivien Oakland as Married Couple

            Garry Owen as Bartender

            Albert Petit as French Waiter

            Gordon Richards as Coachman

            Jack Richardson
            
            Cyril Ring
            
            Marshall Ruth
            
            Virginia Sale as Minister's Wife

            Fred Santley as Yale Alumni

            Scott Wallace as Chauffeur

            Almira Sessions as Couple in Hospital Corridor

            Harry Seymour as Piano Player

            Nick Stewart [Nicodemus] as Waiter

            Laura Treadwell as Woman in Theater

            Elizabeth Valentine as Matron in Hospital

            Philip Van Zandt as Librettist

            John Vosper as Man

            Regina Wallace as Tina's mother

            Crane Whitley as Commercial Artist

            Eric Wilton as English Officer

            Joan Winfield as Nurse

            Richard Erdman as Customer

            Edward Kelly as Callboy

            John Miles
            
            Charles Williams as Customer

            Rebel Randall as Chorus girl

            John W. Goldsworthy as Yale Gentleman

            Richard Bartell as Photographer

            Maurice Brierre
            
            Henri DeSoto as Waiter

            Rudy Friml as Orchestra Leader

            Michael Lally
            
            Mayo Newhall as Bearded Man

            Harold De Becker as English Workman

            Robert Arthur as Customer

            Edgar Caldwell
            
            Bernard DeRoux as Assistant to Giron

            Dick Earle
            
            Ernest Golm as Foreign Couple

            Paul Gustine as Men in Theater

            J.W. Johnston as Doctor

            Marie Melesch as Scrub Woman

            Helen O'Hara
            
            Helen Pender as Pretty Nurse

            Dorothy Reisner
            
            Susanne Rosser as Chorine

            George Suzanne
            
            George Volk
            
            Pat Gleason as Dance Director

            Charles Miller as Professor
See full cast