FISHCAKE Review of Night and Day

Night and Day (1946)

If you think a biopic of Cole Porter can't miss, you under estimate Hollywood

[7/10 · 15 November 1999]

You might think that, with 27 of Cole Porter's songs to exploit and a large cast of top-flight singers and dancers to present them, Hollywood couldn't possibly miss. You just don't know Hollywood. This purported biography of the composer-lyricist responsible for possibly the best popular music of the 20th century sinks to a level of mediocrity, so far as the "dramatic" material is concerned, rarely equaled in the long history of bad films about real people. The music comes off great, no question, and the best way to enjoy this movie on tape is to remaster it, keeping only the music and dance. Some real facts about Porter are treated, sort of: (1) he really had a wealthy family, but the grandfather was a very lucky speculator, not a legal light; (2) he really did go to Yale, but also to Harvard, which is not mentioned; (3) his first broadway musical was a failure, but probably not because of Lusitania; (4) he went to North Africa shortly afterward to entertain troops there and served in the U.S.armed forces in 1917, 1918 (references say nothing about the French army or a wound); (5) he did marry in 1931; and (6) he was injured in a horseback accident in 1937. Cary Grant looks very uncomfortable in the role, handling his scenes with Alexis Smith as if she was a carrier of the Eboli virus! Cole Porter is said to have "loved it", as well he might, remembering the royalties on those 27 all-time hits of his that are showcased. I rate this a "7" solely on the basis of the music.