Too much of everything

best movie i've ever seen.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Hollywood in the so-called "Golden Age" of the 1930's and 40's was "The Land of Let's Pretend," and few films were expected to deal with hard truths, most especially musicals. Assuming that no one in 1946 expected to see a film revealing details of Cole Porter's private life, it's difficult to ascertain why Night and Day has had a bad rap for many years--it's dazzlingly colorful, loaded with dozens of Cole Porter songs, many, like Mary Martin's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," and Monty Wooley's "Miss Otis Regrets" near definitive, not too far removed from the Broadway versions.Cole Porter himself, on whose life this lavish Warners musical has been very loosely based, was said to be, at least publicly, delighted, as not only were his compositions heard in lavish orchestrations, but he was played by Cary Grant--and what could be better? Even the recent Porter biopic De-Lovely only skirts the truth of Porter's problem life, and awkwardly updates arrangements for today's young film-goer, but this pleasantly-paced version is fun and well-paced.Director Michael Curtiz (of Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy fame) knows exactly how to keep the energy in a biopic alive--compare this zippy musical with MGM's elephantine Till The Clouds Roll By, made the same year, which tediously attempts to make Jerome Kern's life of some interest: the lavish musical numbers are fine, but the life story grim, Robert Walker in a weak-tea performance, barely of interest as Kern. In this one, Grant (even when at 40 he's playing a college student) is charmingly cool and magnetic. Here's to The Dream Factory--and to all those memorable tunes!

Whether or not you get a kick from champagne, you'll definitely get a kick out of "Night and Day", the dazzling 1946 biopic of Cole Porter.Portraying Cole Porter is Cary Grant, who not only charms us with his acting, but also shows a fairly pleasant singing voice. Cast as his wife is Alexis Smith, who, though good, could have been better in her role. But the score is great (featuring hits like the title tune, "You're the Top", "Begin the Beguine", "I've Got You Under My Skin" and many more) and there's a slew of stars singing a song or two like Monty Wooley, Ginny Simms and Eve Arden.Thought not a very accurate account of Cole Porter's life, I think it is better the way it is : a glorious celebration of Mr Porter's great music. A thoroughly enjoyable musical film, great for the whole family.

To criticize this movie for glossing over Cole Porter's homosexuality is very naive. If you expect a biopic made in 1946 to be a truthful, out-of-the-closet version of Cole Porter's life, you either don't know much about American social history, or are living in an alternate universe. However, if you are a fan of Cole Porter's music, relax and enjoy this flick for what it is, namely a great Hollywood musical. If you accept the movie on those terms, you are in for a most enjoyable experience. As a musical "Night and Day" is in a class with the best of the genre: "Golddiggers of 1933," "Anchors Aweigh," "Bathing Beauty," "Singin' in the Rain," "The Band Wagon," etc. It is a treat to see and hear every great Porter tune rendered with the delightful kitsch that defined Hollywood musicals of that Classic Era

If Cole Porter were to be shown in any film accurately you need a Don Knotts type with a bit more polish. Unlike his friend and rival Irving Berlin (who did not mind showing up in one movie as himself: THIS IS THE ARMY) Porter had this image as a sophisticate that physically he fit if you recall that not all sophisticates look like Fred Astaire or other Hollywood types. As a matter of face, if Porter did not look physically like Astaire (an old friend) or Cary Grant, he also did not look like Kevin Kline, in the interesting recent film DELOVELY which opened up more about Porter's homosexuality and his co-dependent relationship with his wife Linda.That said, Porter is on record as having loved the musical film NIGHT AND DAY. When his friends pointed out all the errors he brushed them aside with the comment that any film where Cary Grant portrayed him had to be good. No fool our Cole.Although it gives the barest outline of Porter's career, and makes some whopping errors, it does give a basis for further study into his life for anyone interested in the most sophisticated American song writer of the period from 1928 - 1958. His music was not as remarkable as George Gershwin, but George required brother Ira to do his lyrics, as much as Richard Rodgers required Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein, or Jerome Kern needed Hammerstein, or Frederick Loewe needed Allan J. Lerner. Only Berlin and Porter did words and music solo (Rodgers would do one musical by himself - NO STRINGS - after Hammerstein died).He was born in Peru, Indiana, his grandfather being a multi-millionaire in the lumber trade who wanted him to be a lawyer (and sent him to Yale for that reason). His years in Yale were pleasant and even artistically sound. He composed "Eli, Eli Yale" and "We Are Poor Little Lambs" which are still sung by their glee clubs.* *"We Are Poor Little Lambs" is a rare exception in Berlin's career of total song writer. He retouched the original lyrics, which are from the BARRACK ROOM BALLAD "Gentleman Rankers" by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling, by the way, was not too thrilled about it.After service in World War I (as said on another comment, he was not wounded), Porter began trying to break into Broadway. Oddly enough his first serious work was in 1921 when he did a musical satire about American life from the point of an immigrant. But the musical did not succeed, and the music is now lost. He spent the rest of the decade only composing music for friends on the Riviera (yes his was a very hard life). It was not until 1928 that he began to try his hand on Broadway, and remained for three decades.By now he was also married to Linda (Alexis Smith in the film) who appreciated his personality and wit, and his talent. It appears to have been what is called a "white marriage" where they stuck it out loyally together from mutual respect and affection, but not sex - each went separately there, but always returned to each other.This of course is not in the film. But the 1938 horse riding accident is in it - which left him in actually constant pain for the rest of his life. For a pampered sybarite Porter was quite a brave man.The parts about this film that enable one to enjoy it are such musical bits as Mary Martin returning to do the "Siberian Railroad" Sequence from a musical that she introduced "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", or the dramatic moments like the death of grandfather Henry Stephenson. Grant and Smith are smashingly good as Cole and Linda (at least as Cole liked the public to think of them). And Monty Wooley does his best playing his charming and straight talking self (note how he uses the same speech to sell Cole's Broadway shows to potential backers and producers). For a film that one knows is not true as a biography, it remains the best fictional biography of a popular composer made in Hollywood in the Golden Age of film making.