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Night and Day

Night and Day

List Price: $19.97
Your Price: $17.97
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Compare and contrast to "De-Lovely"
Review: "De-Lovely", of course, is the 2004 biofilm of Cole Porter, which explores subjects - especially Porter's gayness - that "Night and Day" couldn't. That being stipulated, though, I thought Cary Grant did quite well as Porter, though the movie, again, isn't really able to explore the complexities of Porter's relationship with his wife Linda, going for a more conventional route of "wife neglected by success-driven star". The music is terrific either way, though.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: For Cary Grant, Technicolor, and musical fans
Review: "Night & Day" is a wonderful musical, a beautiful film displaying Cary Grant's talents, and it has that 'never-to-be-realized-again' Technicolor to its sets that offers that imaginary world so many films offered in the 50s, (although this particular film is from '46).
If the viewer is looking for historical accuracy, it is best to look elsewhere. There is a loose framework of historical accuracy here, but only a skeleton. Porter actually did go to Yale, but only for undergrad. He actually went to Harvard for law school. As far as I know, he was never actually in World War I, although he was in Europe during the war. In addition, the love story is completely and utterly fabricated, although it is "cute" and a nice sub-plot to the film.
The real driving force of the film is definitely the sets, the music, and Grant himself. This is definitely an entertaining fantasy, and I highly recommend it for film buffs, especially those that love Cary Grant.
The new DVD is nicely put together, and it includes a series of Cole Porter trailers, a Dezi Arnez music number, a musical short, and even a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Cole Porter music, plus Cary Grant
Review: A classy first-class Hollywood production from 1946, with dreamy melt-on-your-tongue (and melt your heart) love songs. I have to warn you that the sound quality on the copy I rented from the video store was only so-so in places, but don't let that stop you if you have a fondness for Cole Porter or Cary Grant.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: GRANT SINGS...AND HOW!
Review: A really bad movie,which means good to me.Grant sings and plays a candy coated version of Cole Porter's life.What happened to all the scandal?Go get it..you'll laugh. "You're the top,you're Mahatma Gahndi...you're the top,you're Napoleon brandy"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Must See!"
Review: Anyone who is either a fan of Cary Grant or Cole Porter's music "must see" this movie! It is not just "adequately done" as other reviewers have said. It is superb, especially "I've Got You Under My Skin" one of the many great songs that you will be singing or humming to yourself long after you watched the movie. Let alone the title song, "Night and Day." We laughed and cried as the life story of Cole Porter was portrayed with finesse by Cary Grant. You will love the ending!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cary is not Cole
Review: Cole Porter was a skinny, homely little guy from Peru, Indiana, who reinvented himself as an international sophisticate. And he was gay. Of course a movie of this era cannot be expected to deal with a subject that was then taboo. But casting the dashing Cary Grant as Cole Porter turns this movie into pure fantasy, if enjoyable fantasy. In the MGM musical about Rodgers and Hart, "Words and Music," casting the role of Lorenz "Larry" Hart posed a similar problem. Hart was 4' 9", alcoholic, and more or less openly gay. They at least made a stab at getting it right by casting the diminutive Mickey Rooney, and including many of Hart's mannerisms, such as his hyperactivity, penchant for smoking large cigars, and his habit of nervously rubbing his hands together. And there's a scene when Tom Drake as Rodgers gives Rooney a funny look when he he puts an arm on his shoulder while he is playing the piano. Very subtle but unmistakeable. Mickey Rooney as Hart is an honorable failure. The best that one can say about Cary Grant as Cole Porter is that Porter would certainly have liked to look like Grant. (And then there is "Rhapsody in Blue," starring Robert Alda, who is a reasonable facsimile of the probably gay Gershwin, which invents two completely fictional female romantic interests for Gershwin, who never had any.) One piece of authenticity in the film is Monty Woolley, who was a classmate and friend of Porter at Yale. Monty was a scion of Manhattan high society, and Cole a social climber par excellence--and they both loved the theater. The music makes it all more than worthwhile--the high point for me being the great Mary Martin doing the song that made her a star, "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Movie
Review: I haven't seen the video becuase I've never been able to find it until now. I've seen the movie many times and think it's one of the best I've ever seen. I thank Amazon.Com for having it available.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Music and Performances Are The High Points
Review: One of Broadway's most brilliant songwriters, Cole Porter (1891-1964) worked hard to present an unflappable image to the world--but in truth he was a tremendously complex man, a homosexual who lived with wife Linda Lee Thomas in a marriage of convenience, subject fits of depression, and suffering horrific pain in the wake of a horseback riding accident which left him crippled at the peak of his career. Add to this the fact that his lyrics were often censored for film, radio, and records and it seems very odd that 1940s Hollywood would attempt a biography.

What they did, of course, was fictionalize it to the max, reducing the story of his life to a mix of backstage musical and domestic drama--and transforming the tiny and waspish Porter and his icy bride Linda into handsome Cary Grant and lovely Alexis Smith. The result is pure nonsense, of course, but when you tack in a host of Porter classics--fantasy it might be, but it is entertaining enough to watch.

Grant is no singer, but he has considerable charm, and Smith is as always extremely attractive. The supporting cast is remarkably strong, featuring the likes of Jane Wyman, Eve Arden, Dorothy Malone, and Alan Hale--and rare screen appearances by Monty Woolley and Mary Martin, who deliver knockout performances of "Miss Otis Regrets" and "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" respectively. The DVD transfer is reasonable, and although the bonuses are pure fluff they are amusing. While it may be short on fact with a story little more than pure melodrama, the music and performers make NIGHT AND DAY a reasonably pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Night and Day on DVD
Review: Others have addressed the travesty this movie makes of Cole Porter's life, so I will not rehash. Historically, both Linda and Cole were supposed to have been quite pleased with the flic, which, given the times, probably was the only public reaction they could have had (I'd hope they laughed histerically in private).

On the plus side, we have Alexis Smith as beautiful and elegant as she always was, but younger (presumably Linda Lee Porter suggested her for the role); Jane Wyman vital and sparkling, as far removed from Douglas Sirk as one can imagine; Mary Martin innocently raunchy; Eve Arden putting on a French accent, straight-faced; and about the most gosh-awful-kitschiest rendition of Begin the Beguine I have ever seen, on or off film. Not campy but garish, it becomes fascinatingly repellent .... definitely worth seeing. It is the movie's "Big Number" .... seriously tasteless and ill-conceived, following relatively close on the heels -so to speak- of an acknowledged masterpiece: Begin the Beguine, the "Big Number" in "Broadway Melody of 1940," danced by Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire.(Available in a pristine transfer to DVD).

What is absolutely shameful is the minimal care evidenced in the movie's transfer to DVD. Scratches and dirt are easily discernible...... worst: whole sections go by in thoroughly faded technicolor, yet there are isolated spots when one is reminded how glorious the process could be. It doesn't appear WB went to a negative but rather picked from various prints in varying degrees of deterioration. I can think of many movies deserving full-fledged restoration before Night and Day,
but, c'mon...... surely Warner can do better than this.

WB partially redeems itself by including a musical short featuring a singing Desi Arnaz and His Band, and a truly charmless, through-composed oddity called "Musical Movieland." Nonetheless, on the balance, if it came to a choice, I would have opted for a better transfer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Classic!
Review: Our family is a big fan of musicals and old movie classics and "Night and Day" fits into both categories perfectly! We rented this movie a few days ago and fell in love with it immediately. The story of Cole Porter, portrayed by Cary Grant, is such a neat one, showing the sacrifices he made, and the difficulties of becoming a composer. I give this a 5 star rating. I think that young and old alike will fall for this movie right away.


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