Night and Day (1946)

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Charles Hoffman (screen play) &
Leo Townsend (screen play) ...
(more)

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:

Cole Porter | Composer | Marriage | Manhattan New York City | Song

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
Carlos Ramírez	...	Specialty Singer of Song 'Begin the Beguine' Number
Milada Mladova	...	Specialty Dancer in 'Begin the Beguine' Number
George Zoritch	...	Specialty Dancer in 'Begin the Beguine' Number
Adam Di Gatano	...	Specialty Dancer in 'I've Got You Under My Skin' Number (as Adam)
Jane Di Gatano	...	Specialty Dancer in 'I've Got You Under My Skin' Number
Estelle Sloan	...	Specialty Dancer in 'Just One of Those Things' Number
Mary Martin	...	Herself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Alvin	...	Petey (uncredited)
Gloria Anderson	...	Tall Showgirl (uncredited)
Valerie Ardis	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Robert Arthur	...	Customer (uncredited)
Lynn Baggett	...	Sexboat (uncredited)
Richard Bartell	...	Photographer (uncredited)
Edward Biby	...	Surgeon (uncredited)
Herman Bing	...	Ladisaus Smedick - Second 'Peaches' (uncredited)
Betty Blair	...	Nurse (uncredited)
William A. Boardway	...	Surgeon (uncredited)
George Boyce	...	Stage Manager (uncredited)
Maurice Brierre	...	French Waiter (uncredited)
Harlan Briggs	...	Doorman (uncredited)
Edgar Caldwell	...	American Officer (uncredited)
Peter Camlin	...	French Lieutenant (uncredited)
Hobart Cavanaugh	...	Man in Hospital Corridor (uncredited)
Wheaton Chambers	...	Assistant Headwaiter (uncredited)
Joan Chandler	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Jack Chefe	...	Headwaiter (uncredited)
Willis Clare	...	Husband (uncredited)
Pat Clark	...	Specialty Trio Member (uncredited)
Chester Clute	...	Music Publisher (uncredited)
John Compton	...	Student (uncredited)
Joyce Compton	...	Chorine (uncredited)
Dorothy Costello	...	Dancer Twin (uncredited)
Ruth Costello	...	Dancer Twin (uncredited)
Harry Crocker	...	Newspaperman (uncredited)
Frank Dae	...	Professor (uncredited)
Armba Dandridge	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Boyd Davis	...	Dean (uncredited)
Harold De Becker	...	English Workman (uncredited)
Fred Deming	...	Guest (uncredited)
Bernard DeRoux	...	Assistant to Giron (uncredited)
Henri DeSoto	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Jimmie Dodd	...	Red - a Student (uncredited)
Fred Dosch	...	French Waiter (uncredited)
Paula Drew	...	Specialty Trio Member (uncredited)
Adrian Droeshout	...	Man at Bar (uncredited)
Pierre Duval	...	French Officer (uncredited)
Dick Earle	...	Doctor (uncredited)
Frank Elliott	...	Man in Theatre (uncredited)
Fern Emmett	...	Secretary (uncredited)
Richard Erdman	...	Music Store Customer (uncredited)
Herbert Evans	...	Bobby (uncredited)
Frank Ferguson	...	Tina's Father (uncredited)
Sam Flint	...	Professor (uncredited)
Howard Freeman	...	Max Fisher - Producer (uncredited)
Rudolf Friml Jr.	...	Orchestra Leader (uncredited)
Lance Fuller	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Paul Garkie	...	Student (uncredited)
Eugene Gericke	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Pat Gleason	...	Dance Director (uncredited)
John Goldsworthy	...	Yale Gentleman (uncredited)
Ernest Golm	...	Foreign Gentleman (uncredited)
Lisa Golm	...	Foreign Lady (uncredited)
Buddy Gorman	...	English Pageboy (uncredited)
Marion Gray	...	Wife (uncredited)
Paul Gustine	...	Man in Theatre (uncredited)
Creighton Hale	...	Man in Theatre (uncredited)
Bill Hardsway	...	Surgeon (uncredited)
Jane Harker	...	Specialty Trio Member (uncredited)
Patsy Harmon	...	Young Customer (uncredited)
Henry Hastings	...	Black Bartender (uncredited)
Hans Herbert	...	Headwaiter (uncredited)
Tom Herbert	...	Drunk (uncredited)
Emil Hilb	...	Orchestra Leader (uncredited)
Shep Houghton	...	Dancer and Singer (uncredited)
Rune Hultman	...	American Lieutenant (uncredited)
Boyd Irwin	...	Professor (uncredited)
Gladden James	...	Doctor (uncredited)
Jack W. Johnston	...	Doctor (uncredited)
Eddie Kane	...	Eddie - Head Waiter (uncredited)
Art Kassel Jr.	...	Student (uncredited)
Edward Kelly	...	Call Boy (uncredited)
Colin Kenny	...	Doorman (uncredited)
George Kirby	...	Cab Driver (uncredited)
Joe Kirkwood Jr.	...	Classmate (uncredited)
Skelton Knaggs	...	Newspaper Vendor (uncredited)
Mike Lally	...	Doctor (uncredited)
Leota Lorraine	...	Wife (uncredited)
Ellen Lowe	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Paula Mae	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Frank Marlowe	...	Army Driver (uncredited)
Jo Ann Marlowe	...	Tina (uncredited)
Caren Marsh	...	Young Customer (uncredited)
Gregory Marshall	...	Small Caroler (uncredited)
Alan Marston	...	American Officer (uncredited)
Ruth Matthews	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Tom McGuire	...	Surgeon (uncredited)
Fay McKenzie	...	Singer in 'Easy To Love' Number (uncredited)
Robert McKenzie	...	Hansom Cab Driver (uncredited)
Claire Meade	...	Customer (uncredited)
George Meader	...	Minister (uncredited)
Marie Melish	...	Scrubwoman (uncredited)
John Miles	...	Student (uncredited)
Charles Miller	...	Professor (uncredited)
Jacqueline Milo	...	French Girl (uncredited)
Rene Mimieux	...	Man at Bar (uncredited)
Bert Moorhouse	...	Yale Alumnus of 1916 (uncredited)
Edna Morris	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Jack Mower	...	Livery Chauffeur (uncredited)
Clarence Muse	...	Porter (uncredited)
Mayo Newhall	...	Bearded Man (uncredited)
Bill Nind	...	English Officer (uncredited)
Georgie Nokes	...	Wayne Blackburn as a Boy (uncredited)
Eva Novak	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Helen O'Hara	...	Chorine (uncredited)
Vivien Oakland	...	Married Woman (uncredited)
Garry Owen	...	Joe the Bartender (uncredited)
Michael Panaieff	...	French Officer (uncredited)
John Pearson	...	First 'Peaches' (uncredited)
Helen Pender	...	Pretty Nurse (uncredited)
Albert Petit	...	French Waiter (uncredited)
Louis Quince	...	Husband (uncredited)
Rebel Randall	...	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Dorothy Reisner	...	Young Customer (uncredited)
Gordon Richards	...	Cochran (uncredited)
Jack Richardson	...	Surgeon (uncredited)
George Riley	...	O'Halloran (uncredited)
Cyril Ring	...	Married Man (uncredited)
Arlyn Roberts	...	Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Susanne Rosser	...	Chorine (uncredited)
Don Roy	...	Bandleader (uncredited)
Laddie Rucker	...	Student (uncredited)
Marshall Ruth	...	Yale Alumnus of 1916 (uncredited)
Virginia Sale	...	Minister's Wife (uncredited)
Fred Santley	...	Yale Alumnus of 1916 (uncredited)
Leonardo Scavino	...	French Officer (uncredited)
Allen Schute	...	English Officer (uncredited)
Wallace Scott	...	Chauffeur (uncredited)
Almira Sessions	...	Woman in Hospital Corridor (uncredited)
Harry Seymour	...	Clarence - Piano Player (uncredited)
Laurie Sherman	...	Intern (uncredited)
Barbara Slater	...	Tall Showgirl (uncredited)
Gene Stanley	...	Classmate of Porter (uncredited)
Nick Stewart	...	Black Waiter (uncredited)
George Suzanne	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Mel Tormé	...	Drummer at 'Anything Goes' Rehearsal (uncredited)
Laura Treadwell	...	Woman in Theatre (uncredited)
Gladys Turney	...	Society Woman (uncredited)
Elizabeth Valentine	...	Matron in Hospital (uncredited)
Philip Van Zandt	...	Librettist (uncredited)
George Volk	...	American Officer (uncredited)
John Vosper	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Regina Wallace	...	Tina's Mother (uncredited)
Bobby Watson	...	Director (uncredited)
Crane Whitley	...	Commercial Artist (uncredited)
Charles Williams	...	Music Store Customer (uncredited)
Eric Wilton	...	English Officer (uncredited)
Joan Winfield	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Bertha Woolford	...	Servant (uncredited)

Directed by
Michael Curtiz

Writing credits
Charles Hoffman		(screen play) &
Leo Townsend		(screen play) and
William Bowers		(screen play)
Jack Moffitt		(adaptation)

Produced by
Arthur Schwartz	....	producer
Jack L. Warner	....	executive producer

Cinematography by
J. Peverell Marley		(director of photography) (as Peverell Marley)
William V. Skall		(director of photography)
Bert Glennon		(director of photography) (uncredited)

Film Editing by
David Weisbart		(film editor)

Art Direction by
John Hughes

Set Decoration by
Armor Marlowe		(set decorations)

Makeup Department
Perc Westmore	....	makeup artist
Jean Burk	....	hair stylist (uncredited)
Norman Pringle	....	makeup (uncredited)

Production Management
Eric Stacey	....	unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frank Heath	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Robert Vreeland	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Herbert Plews	....	props (uncredited)
Robert Turner	....	props (uncredited)

Sound Department
Everett Alton Brown	....	sound
Charles David Forrest	....	sound (as David Forrest)
Gerald W. Alexander	....	sound (uncredited)
Robert G. Wayne	....	sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Robert Burks	....	special effects
Paul Detlefsen	....	matte paintings (uncredited)
Mario Larrinaga	....	matte paintings (uncredited)
William C. McGann	....	special effects (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Lester H. Blackburn	....	gaffer (uncredited)
Herschel Brown	....	grip (uncredited)
Jack Fresholtz	....	gaffer: stills (uncredited)
Cliff King	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Wiley Martin	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
George Gordon Nogle	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Clair Sealey	....	best boy (uncredited)
Harvey L. Slocomb	....	technicolor assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Milo Anderson	....	wardrobe
Travilla	....	costume designer: dance costumes
Ida Greenfield	....	wardrobe (uncredited)
Eugene Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)
Roe Ramsey	....	wardrobe (uncredited)
Leon Roberts	....	wardrobe (uncredited)
Sue Shannon	....	wardrobe (uncredited)

Music Department
Dudley Chambers	....	vocal arranger
Leo F. Forbstein	....	musical director
Ray Heindorf	....	conductor: production numbers
Ray Heindorf	....	orchestrator: production numbers
Max Steiner	....	composer: additional music
Max Steiner	....	music adaptor: additional music
Charles David Forrest	....	music mixer (uncredited)

Other crew
Herschel Daugherty	....	dialogue director
Leonard Doss	....	associate technicolor color director
Natalie Kalmus	....	technicolor color director
James Leicester	....	montages
LeRoy Prinz	....	dance numbers created and directed by
Gene Alden	....	stand-in: Donald Woods (uncredited)
Fred Applegate	....	script clerk (uncredited)
Miriam Bellah	....	stand-in: Dorothy Malone (uncredited)
Diane Bernard	....	stand-in: Jane Wyman (uncredited)
Rex DeWitt	....	stand-in: Monty Woolley (uncredited)
Betty Dietrich	....	stand-in: Alexis Smith (uncredited)
George Dye	....	technicolor technician (uncredited)
Pat Malone	....	stand-in: Henry Stephenson (uncredited)
Mal Merrihugh	....	stand-in: Cary Grant (uncredited)
Jean Porter	....	stand-in: Selena Royle (uncredited)

Thanks
Cole Porter	....	acknowledgment: based on the career of

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures (presents) (A Warner Bros.- First National Picture)

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1946) (USA) (theatrical)
• Dominant Pictures Corporation (1956) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Warner Bros. (1949) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1948) (France) (theatrical)
• Living Colour Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

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:

Canada:PG (video rating) | West Germany:16 | USA:Approved (PCA #11173) | Australia:G | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

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

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Cole sings "In An Old-fashioned Garden", the camera moves through the room towards the window. As it is approaching the window, we see a chair in the camera's way being pulled out by a crewman.

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:

Spoofed in "The Carol Burnett Show: Episode #10.11" (1976)

Soundtrack:

In the Still of the Night

The cold, dark, beautiful prince.

I haven't seen DE LOVELY, the new musical biopic about Cole Porter's life -- the movie trailer convinced me it would be as terrible as the reviews say it is. But Stephen Holden's pan in the N.Y. Times caused me to want to see NIGHT AND DAY again since he thought that for all its fraudulence, it caught something right about Porter's life and times. Having seen it recently for the first time since childhood, I can see what he meant. Evidently everything in it is a lie. Okay. Standard for Hollywood biopics.

The more important thing it gets wrong is the music, which for the most part is not handled well. In this period, Warner Bros. did not have talented singer/dancers under contract and it shows here. Ginny Simms is an accomplished if mechanical singer, Jane Wyman a passable one, but neither dances and neither dazzles. Mary Martin had talent and charm but not the looks nor the sparkle to come across well on film. When dancing is called for we get dull, pretentious ballroom/acrobatic routines from anonymous performers. This film needed the kind of musical talent MGM had under contract, and that lack of talent and zip makes for a musically mediocre film despite the fantastic Porter song catalog.

What the film got weirdly right was the casting of Cary Grant because either by his choice or director Michael Curtiz's design, Grant's withholding, enigmatic performance is intriguing, and does most of the work of spelling out 'the gay thing' for audiences in the know then and now. DE LOVELY may well be frank about the fact that Porter was gay, but gay audiences would have gotten the point in NIGHT AND DAY anyway. Lovely, elegant, chilly Alexis Smith does all the pursuing in the film, as do the other women, and yet Cole is charmingly evasive with all of them. They want him -- who wouldn't want to sleep with Cary Grant at the peak of his beauty? -- but he doesn't seem to care about anything but his music. Hmmmm. Where have we heard that before? Even when Linda/Alexis lands him, he's never really hers, he always seems to have his mind and heart elsewhere. There is absolutely no suggestion anywhere in this film that there was intense passion, emotion or love on his side of this relationship, which is unusual in this period. Rather their marriage seems to be a companionable one of mutual respect, which was apparently the case in real life. When Linda/Alexis gets fed up with being neglected in favor of Cole's work, we can also imagine that an endless supply of bellmen, sailors and chorus boys may have had something to do with it as well. The movie can't say this, but it leaves enough space and question marks for the audience to fill in the blanks. And we do.

Even at the end, with Porter being honored back at Yale with the (all male) glee club singing the glorious "Night and Day" and Linda walks in and she and Cole meet again on the brick patio in the moonlight, Grant doesn't kiss her except for a chaste peck on the cheek. Once again, as throughout the film, he is the passive object of her desire and he hardly seems to care. This performance as much as his work in the excellent NOTORIOUS suggests the coldness and misogyny that sometimes lurk in his screen persona. It's explicit in SUSPICION and NOTORIOUS, Hitchcock was exploring it there, but it's actually implicit in NIGHT AND DAY in every closeup where Grant looks simultaneously gorgeous and conflicted. How hard it must have been to be this beautiful and this uneasy about it.

I concur with those here who find the print currently on view on TCM as sub-par. A new DVD is out on NIGHT AND DAY and TCM would do well to show this in future. Meanwhile, feel free to check this picture out to see an example of screenwriters, a director and a star who work hard to suggest what they cannot actually say.