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John Alvin, Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Eve Arden, Monty Woolley ... see more see more... , Herman Bing , Jane Wyman , Paul Cavanagh , Tom D'Andrea , Dorothy Malone , Mary Martin , Victor Francen , Howard Freeman , Alan Hale , Milada Mladova , Clarence Muse , Carlos Ramirez , George Riley , Selena Royle , Sig Rumann , Ginny Simms , Henry Stephenson , Bobby Watson , Donald Woods , George Zoritch , Lynne Baggett , Edward Biby , George Boyce , Harlan Briggs , Peter Camlin , Hobart Cavanaugh , Chester Clute , John Compton , Joyce Compton , Harry Crocker , Frank Dae , Boyd Davis , Fern Emmett , Herbert Evans , Frank Ferguson , Sam Flint , Gene Garrick , Lisa Golm , Buddy Gorman , Creighton Hale , Edna M. Harris , Hans Herbert , Rune Hultman , Boyd Irwin , Gladden James , Eddie Kane , Colin Kenny , George Kirby , Joe Kirkwood Jr. , Ellen Lowe , Frank Marlowe , Jo Ann Marlowe , Tom McGuire , Bob McKenzie , Claire Meade , George Meader , Bert Moorhouse , Jack Mower , Gregory Muradian , George Nokes , Vivien Oakland , Garry Owen , Albert Petit , Gordon Richards , Jack Richardson , Cyril Ring , Marshall Ruth , Virginia Sale , Fred Santley , Scott Wallace , Almira Sessions , Harry Seymour , Nick Stewart [Nicodemus] , Laura Treadwell , Elizabeth Valentine , Philip Van Zandt , John Vosper , Regina Wallace , Crane Whitley , Eric Wilton , Joan Winfield , Richard Erdman , Edward Kelly , John Miles , Charles Williams , Rebel Randall , John W. Goldsworthy , Richard Bartell , Maurice Brierre , Henri DeSoto , Rudy Friml , Michael Lally , Mayo Newhall , Harold De Becker , Robert Arthur , Edgar Caldwell , Bernard DeRoux , Dick Earle , Ernest Golm , Paul Gustine , J.W. Johnston , Marie Melesch , Helen O'Hara , Helen Pender , Dorothy Reisner , Susanne Rosser , George Suzanne , George Volk , Pat Gleason , Charles Miller

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 ... read more read more...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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47% liked it

2,229 ratings

Unrated, 2 hr. 8 min.

Directed by: Michael Curtiz

Release Date: August 3, 1946

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DVD Release Date: June 1, 2004

Stats: 86 reviews

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Cary Grant and Howard Freeman Victor Francen, Cary Grant and Alexis Smith Cary Grant, Jane Wyman and Monty Woolley Night and Day Night and Day Cary Grant and Ginny Simms Cary Grant, Mary Martin and Jane Wyman Night and Day Cary Grant and Alexis Smith Night and Day Cary Grant and Alexis Smith Night and Day Cary Grant and Monty Woolley Monty Wooley, Jane Wyman and Cary Grant Jane Wyman and Cary Grant Night and Day Victor Francen, Cary Grant and Alexis Smith
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Flixster Reviews (86)

  • moonrivers
    April 20, 2012
    moonrivers
    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 ... read moreain'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.
  • ajv2688
    October 23, 2010
    ajv2688
    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.
  • jjnxn
    October 6, 2007
    jjnxn
    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.
  • jam233
    December 10, 2009
    jam233
    Highly fictionalized biography of Cole Porter, with the curious miscasting of Cary Grant in the lead. Alexis Smith is fine as his love interest. It obviously ignores the fact Porter was gay. The recent film De Lovely is also a biography of Porter, it is more accurate and does exp... read morelore the gay aspect, but Night and Day is still more entertaining.
  • x0hn0th3r4nc0rx
    March 17, 2008
    x0hn0th3r4nc0rx
    An entertaining but completely inaccurate biopic of Cole Porter, "Night and Day" is really a showcase for Porter's magnificient songs.

    Although I'm a fan of Porter, I've often wondered why on Earth Hollywood wanted to do a movie on him at this time. Porter was a homosexual (a ... read moreno-no back then), he preferred Broadway to Hollywood, and his lyrics were often censored. Indeed, this movie borders fiction as so much of it is a fabrication.

    For fans of Cary Grant, Alexis Smith or Cole Porter's songs, I'd recommend "Night and Day". For those who want a factual biography on Porter, stay away.
  • mkatchan
    November 17, 2007
    mkatchan
    A very Hollywood-ized version of the life of Cole Porter starring Cary Grant as Porter and directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca). Great music and a very good performance by Grant (as usual).
  • weikel2000
    May 15, 2007
    weikel2000
    surprsingly good. I thought Cary Grant in a music based movie would be a dissaster, but it was done very well.
  • johnbassett
    November 15, 2006
    johnbassett
    Although factually inaccurate, lovely to look at and very smalzy with great renditions of his classic music - most ofwhich were horribly done in the more recent biography De_lovely

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Critic Reviews

Douglas Pratt
June 15, 2007
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...

Ken Hanke
September 13, 2004
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Laughably sanitized biopic.

February 23, 2012
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

January 1, 2000
New York Times

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Emanuel Levy
July 28, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Philip Martin
February 25, 2005
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

No review available.

January 26, 2006
Time Out

Click to read the article Full Review

May 24, 2003
Film4

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Night and Day Trivia

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