Screen Directors Playhouse (TV Series) What Day Is It? (1956) User Reviews

One Argument, Three Chimps and Several Dances

[boblipton · 7/10 · 6 December 2011]

Marge and Gower Champion play a song-and-dance couple -- admittedly not much of a stretch -- in this piece that Mr. Champion directed for Hal Roach's Screen Director's Playhouse.

The dance numbers are very good, but they and the direction are all of a piece: dances, songs, orchestration, arguing, they are all matters of perfect timing and clockwork precision that makes it look fake. It's remarkably like all of his work, from the choreography of his and his wife's dance numbers to his big Broadway hits in the 1970s -- choreographed, not directed. I walk away from each effort with the sense that it's all very good, but that it will always be the same -- and never anything that I didn't see the first time.

Don't get me wrong: there is something charming about the precision of Champion's work. But they don't call me to take a second look.

Worth Watching for the Husband and Wife Team

[Michael_Elliott · 2 January 2012]

Screen Directors Playhouse: What Day is It? (1956)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A husband and wife dance team (Marge and Gower Champion) finish their act on stage and head back to the dressing room for a change when an argument breaks out after the husband can't remember what special event happened this day. This entry in the Screen Directors Playhouse certainly isn't among the best but it's a rather interesting one for a few reasons. The biggest one is the teaming of the real-life husband and wife team as both went on to have some interesting careers. The two of them were obviously very good working together and they offer up some impressive dance numbers including the film's highlight dealing with a clown act. This clown act was so good that you actually forget about the other story going on. Another major plus is a small comic bit involving some chimps but I won't give away how they're used. Overall the film is certainly worth watching thanks in large part to the stars. There's no question they were good working together and their chemistry also helps during the argument scenes as it seems they were good at that as well. However, these argument scenes are the real issue with the movie. We're just thrown into this fight and I must admit that it got somewhat annoying listening to them fight and you don't know why they're fighting. This annoying factor was a lot stronger than any actual mystery of why they're fighting. When the big secret is finally revealed I must admit that I then felt the fighting was about a whole lot of nothing.