Night and Day (1946)

5/29/06

Night and Day is a white-washed musical biography of composer Cole Porter. As the real life of Mr. Porter was not fit for a mainstream motion picture of the 1940's, the writers obviously took plenty of liberty's in their screenplay. In fact in the more recent and true to life film about Porter, De-Lovely the characters comment about how inaccurate this film was. Having now sat throughout the movie I find yet further evidence to support Irving Berlins claim that with the exception of Yankee Doodle Dandy (and I suppose now Amadeus), every bio-film about a composer stinks. Cary Grant plays homosexual rake Porter as a heterosexual workaholic, and Alexis Smith plays the composite feeling Linda Lee Porter. Monty Woolley and Mary Martin play themselves in the film. Despite a wealth of strong musical material the only memorable production number in the thing is Begin the Beguine. A disappointment.