Night and Day (1946)
Directed by Michael Curtiz

Film Review

If there was ever a film that deserved the caption 'Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental' that film is surely Night and Day, a supposed biographical account of the wonderful life of Cole Porter.  A complete fabrication from start to finish, the film makes a too obvious attempt to re-invent Porter's life as the classic rags to riches story, with all the less wholesome aspects of the truth (Porter's crippling bouts of depression and frequent homosexual love affairs) conveniently airbrushed out of the picture.  The film has nothing to say about the real Cole Porter and is much more a celebration of his work than a serious attempt at a biopic  Whilst the songs are certainly enjoyable to listen to (even in their heavily sanitised form) the film is let down by the fact that it is trite, shallow and painfully contrived.

Of course, Cary Grant was the man who was best suited to play Cole Porter.  Who better to portray the composer than a man who differed from him in just about every respect?  Grant was presumably how Cole Porter would liked to have seen himself, or, more precisely, how he would have preferred the world to have seen him.  Yet Porter's character is so ill-defined in the film that Grant's presence hardly seems to register.  He could conceivably have been replaced by the Invisible Man (with or without bandages) and the chance is that no one would have noticed the substitution.  Without exception, all of the characters in the film are no more than uninteresting, thinly sketched archetypes, totally eclipsed by Porter's music and the over-garish staging of the show-stoppers from his hit shows.

Perhaps the most bizarre thing about the film was the casting of Monty Woolley, one of Porter's real-life lovers, as himself.  Of course there is no hint of impropriety between Woolley and Porter in the film, and the fact that neither men is seen to age by so much as a day in the course of the thirty or so years spanned by the film is no less credible.  By showing a flagrant disregard for the truth and instead employing lazy clichés of the worst kind, Night and Day is almost the perfect example of how not to make a biopic.  The only thing that saves it is the sheer genius of Porter himself, which is well-represented by the twenty songs of his that pad out the film and make it bearable viewing.  There's more pleasure to be had, however, and far less effort involved, in just putting a CD of Porter's best tunes onto your music system.  Quite what purpose the film serves (other than to allow reviewers to use up their daily quota of sarcasm) is beyond me.

Film Synopsis

Once upon a time there was a handsome young man named Cole Porter who threw up the prospect of a brilliant law career so that he could do what he most wanted to do, which was to become a hugely successful songwriter.  Alas, his first Broadway show was a total flop but even when he was fighting bravely in the trenches during World War I he still couldn't get out of the habit of writing songs.  Convalescing from a war wound, he is nursed by a former girlfriend Linda Lee who is absolutely mad about him and encourages him to go on composing, so certain is she that one day he will be a fine composer.  On his return to America, Cole struggles to sell his songs to a public which is too ignorant to appreciate his worth, and then one day during his lunchbreak he makes up his mind to stage another musical, with the help of his old university friend (that's all he is, a friend), the prematurely aged Monty Woolley.  The show is a success and in no time at all Cole Porter is one of the hottest names in show business, lauded by everyone for such songs as Night and Day, which  he wrote for the woman he loves.  They say that lightning never strikes twice in the same spot, but not so for Mr Porter.  He has another serendipitous encounter with Linda Lee and, being a hot red-blooded heterosexual male he wastes no time making her his wife.  But, alas, Cole's workaholic disposition (and nothing else) soon puts an intolerable strain on their marriage and in the end Linda Lee is forced to leave her husband, as success just keeps on coming his way.  But then disaster!  Cole falls off his horse (it was the horse's fault) and he loses the use of both of his legs.  But Cole is not one to be beaten by adversity and he subjects himself to a long series of operations that will ultimately allow him to walk again.  Linda Lee is finally reunited with Cole and they all lived happily ever after.  And that's the honest truth...