Night and Day is a 1946 Technicolor Warner Bros. biographical musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Cary Grant as American composer and songwriter Cole Porter, Alexis Smith as Linda Lee Porter (Porter's wife of 35 years), and Jane Wyman.
It's a loose telling of Porter's rise to fame, and problems with his marriage (though standards at the time meant Porter's sexuality wasn't mentioned).
Not to be confused with Knight and Day.
This film features examples of:
- Adaptational Sexuality: Cole Porter goes from being a gay man to a smooth ladies man.
- Busby Berkeley Number: Porter's musical numbers tend to be done in the style of these.
- Distracted by the Sexy: The guys on stage with the singer wearing a fur coat who at the end of her act reveals she had a swimsuit under it faint like they are toppling dominoes.
- Going Fur a Swim: One musical number has the singer wearing a fur coat, and then at the end reveals she had a swimsuit under it. The guys, on stage with her, then faint like they are toppling dominoes.
- Gold Digger: Gracie is a bit of one, first dating a guy worth $4 million and gave her a mink coat, then later dating a guy worth $7 million and gave her a white ermine coat.
- Historical Beauty Upgrade: You have here Cole Porter
◊ being played by Cary Grant, the 20th century's screen epitome of suave sophistication. It's said that when the studio asked Cole Porter who he might like to play him in the movie, Porter suggested Grant as a joke, as he thought Grant was about as far from himself as one could get; the studio went out and signed Grant to play the role. When a friend of Porter heard of Grant's casting and asked Porter why he had not objected since he and Grant looked nothing alike, Porter replied, "If they wanted Cary Grant to play you in a movie, would you complain?" - Historical Relationship Overhaul: The biopic of Cole Porter portrays his marriage to Linda as a normal, heterosexual marriage when the truth was that he was gay and she knew it. They were just friends in a marriage of convenience.
- Mood Whiplash: At one point you get Busby Berkeley Numbers intercut with scenes of Porter on the operating table getting major leg surgery after his riding accident.
- Old Money: Linda was well-off even before she married Cole, as demonstrated by wearing a long ermine cape during the cancelled premiere of one of his plays.
- Pretty in Mink:
- Linda, being Old Money, wore quite a few furs even before she married Cole, such as a long ermine cape during the cancelled premiere of one of his plays.
- Gracie is a bit of a Gold Digger, first dating a guy worth $4 million and gave her a mink coat, then later dating a guy worth $7 million and gave her a white ermine coat.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The film is highly fictionalized regarding Porter's life on many aspects, the most clearly noticeable one is that it does not mention that he was a gay man in a marriage of convenience with a friend. Other things include that his French military experience was actually a hoax.
