Night and Day (1946)

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Charles Hoffman (screenplay) and
Leo Townsend (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

3 August 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Musical

Plot:

The fictionalized biography of composer Cole Porter from his days at Yale in the 1910s through the height of his success to the 1940s...

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Composer | Beautiful Woman | Wheelchair | New York City

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Cary Grant	...	Cole Porter
Alexis Smith	...	Linda Lee Porter
Monty Woolley	...	Himself
Ginny Simms	...	Carole Hill
Jane Wyman	...	Gracie Harris
Eve Arden	...	Gabrielle
Victor Francen	...	Anatole Giron
Alan Hale	...	Leon Dowling
Dorothy Malone	...	Nancy
Tom D'Andrea	...	Bernie
Selena Royle	...	Kate Porter
Donald Woods	...	Ward Blackburn
Henry Stephenson	...	Omar Cole
Paul Cavanagh	...	Bart McClelland
Sig Ruman	...	Wilowski

Runtime:

128 min | West Germany:111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #11068) | Canada:PG (video rating) | West Germany:16 | Australia:G | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

George Lewis Mansion - Benedict Canyon Drive, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

In the "You're the Top", Mel Tormé is the blond drummer on the bandstand.

Goofs:

Factual errors: As in Kiss Me Kate (1953), Cole Porter is depicted as a healthy man who is capable of walking for most of the film. In fact, he was a cripple needing constant medical care for his shattered legs which were the result of a riding accident in 1937; any scene showing him walking after that date is in error.

Quotes:

Cole Porter: Thanks for all the flowers.
Monty Woolley: Yes, one can only send them to a man when he's flat on his back.

Movie Connections:

Featured in De-Lovely (2004)

Soundtrack:

Bridal Chorus

Glamor and Drama in a Gorgeous Film

This is a beautiful, entertaining film with clever dialogue and a bit of drama. Though Cole Porter himself said that there was little reality in it, his professional career was featured here in a most winning fashion, with both negative and positive elements of it featured fairly. It is appropriate that the film concentrated upon the career rather than the seedier side of the protagonist's private life. It is all too common these days to have to suffer through presumptuous exposés of the most-private affairs of famous people who are no longer with us. At least this film was produced while its subject was alive. The Irwin Winkler "remake" or retelling, "Delovely", was nothing but an outrageous, shallow outing that concentrated on negativity, while subjecting us to the most boring, flaccid dialogue ever--ironic, I think, for a story about one of the most clever American lyricists of the twentieth century! The 2004 outing starring Kevin Kline also featured some hideous modern renditions of Cole Porter's music that did no justice to the genius of the composer. Movies can accentuate the positive while minimizing the negative and still have value. This is one of the most visually appealing films I have ever seen, but it has moments of disturbing realism as well as glamor. The rigors of life as a prolific artist, as well as the trials of an artist's spouse are portrayed with an adequate degree of grim reality. It does not so much ignore the homosexual activities of the subject as it does allude to them very delicately, and that is all that is required if one has good taste and an active imagination. I'll take an original over a remake any day, and this production, co-starring the hilarious Monty Woolley and the lovely Alexis Smith as Linda Lee Porter, is a good example of that preference.