Night and Day Reviews

NIGHT AND DAY professes to tell the story of Cole Porter but puts more emphasis on his music than his reclusive life. Born to wealth in Indiana, Porter struggled little, although he did endure physical hardships and endless operations, and the film depicts the near-crippling leg injuries that he received while serving in France during WW I and further injuries from a later horse-riding accident. A miscast Cary Grant plays Porter, from his days under the tutelage of Monte Wooley (playing himself) at Yale, through his troubled marriage to the nurse (Alexis Smith) who cared for him after his wartime injury, on to his tremendous success as a composer of pop classics, which finally won him the respect of his stuffy Hoosier family. Regrettably, the film never reveals Porter's complexities, nor does it even hint at his homosexuality. It does, however, provide a grand showcase for his tunes, and its re-creation of the genesis of Porter's composition of "Begin the Beguine" is both reportedly accurate and insightful. Music includes: "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" (sung to a polite striptease by Martin which she introduced in the 1938 Broadway musical "Leave It To Me"), "You're the Top" (sung by Grant and Simms in a medley, songs originally introduced on Broadway by Ethel Merman), "Begin the Beguine" (sung by Ramirez, accompanied by the dance team of Mladova and Zoritch), "I've Got You Under My Skin" (Simms, with Adam and Jayne Di Gatano accompanying), "Just One of Those Things," "I Get a Kick Out of You"(Simms), "Night and Day," "What Is This Thing Called Love," "Do I Love You," "An Old-Fashioned Garden," "Miss Otis Regrets," "Love For Sale," "In the Still of the Night," "Bullfrog," "You Do Something to Me," "Easy to Love," "Let's Do It," "I'm Unlucky at Gambling," "Rosalie," "You've Got That Thing," "Don't Fence Me In," "I'm in Love Again," "Anything Goes," and, by Jack Yellen and Milton Ager, "I Wonder What's Become of Sally."