Night and Day (1946)
Michael Curtiz directed this below average fictionalized musical biography of Cole Porter which earned an Academy Award nomination for its Ray Heindorf-Max Steiner musical Score. Written by Charles Hoffman, Leo Townsend, and William Bowers with an adaptation by Jack Moffitt, it features several uninspired renditions of Porter's music and stage productions including the Yale fight song ("Bulldog"), "What is this Thing called Love?", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Anything Goes", "You're the Top", "Don't Fence Me In", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", and the title song (among several others). The film's unusual casting includes Cary Grant as Porter, Jane Wyman as singer Gracie Harris, and Eve Arden as a French cabaret singer Gabrielle; also, there's Alexis Smith as Porter's wife Linda Lee, Monty Woolley as himself and a former Harvard law professor, and Ginny Simms as Carole Hill, who sings many of the songs. Also in the cast are: Victor Francen as Anatole Giron, who gives Porter an opportunity after he'd been injured during World War I, Alan Hale as a producer who passes on Porter's music, Dorothy Malone as a singer, Selena Royle as Porter's mother, Henry Stephenson as the composer's Grandfather, Sig Ruman as the owner of a place rented by Woolley-Porter for rehearsals, and singer Mary Martin as herself. Herman Bing appears uncredited as one of Gracie's wealthy boyfriends. There's a point in the story when Hale's character says (in effect) "I hear it but, although it sounds good enough, I don't feel anything in my heart (or gut)" to indicate there's something wrong with Porter's music (sung by Woolley!); I think that sums up this film pretty well.
Purchase this DVD now at
Most Recent Additions:
Casanova Brown (1944) - full review!
I Want You (1951) - full review!
A Bill of Divorcement (1932) - full review!
Patterns (1956) - full review!
Last Train from Gun Hill (1959) - full review!
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) - full review!
Hour of the Gun (1967) - full review!
To Sir, with Love (1967) - full review!
You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - full review!
The Actress (1953) - full review!
Mannequin (1937) - full review!
All My Sons (1948) - full review!
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) - full review!
State Fair (1945) - full review!
Billy Budd (1962) - full review!
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) - full review!
The Bachelor Party (1957) - full review!
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - full review!
The Southerner (1945) - full review!
The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966)
Never on Sunday (1960) - full review!
The Arrangement (1969) - full review!
A Summer Place (1959) - full review!
Miracle in the Rain (1956) - full review!
Love Letters (1945) - full review!
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) - full review!
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Come and Get It (1936) - full review!
The Prize (1963) - full review!
This Is the Army (1943) - full review!
Home from the Hill (1960) - full review!
Hangmen Also Die (1943) - full review!
The Shop on Main Street (1965) - full review!
The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (1969) - full review!
A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - full review!
This Happy Breed (1944) - full review!
Red-Headed Woman (1932) - full review!
Waterloo Bridge (1931) - full review!
Baby Face (1933) - full review!
Titanic (1943) - full review!
Cover Girl (1944) - full review!
Saratoga Trunk (1945) - full review!
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
The Young Philadelphians (1959) - full review!
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
Pocket Money (1972) - full review!
Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)
Judge Priest (1934) - full review!
Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) - full review!
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Angel Face (1952) - full review!
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) - full review!
[Home] [Hitchcock] [Oscar's Best] [Essays] [Essential Films] [TCM Picks] [Obscure Films] [Links] [Other Reviews] [Academy Awards] [Silent Films] [Movie Index]
