This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

At Yale University in 1914, wealthy young Cary Grant (as Cole Porter) is fonder of musical theater than his studies. Disappointing his family, he decides to drop out of college and pursue a career in songwriting. He makes it to the top, with a parade of hit songs and Broadway musicals, but tragedy is waiting in the wings. "Night and Day" is a formulaic Hollywood biography, with what would appear to be an odd casting choice in its leading man. Both exude elegance, but having Cary Grant play Cole Porter is strange...Miscast at the onset, Mr. Grant does something with the role. Early on, he kisses pretty blonde Jane Wyman (as Gracie Harris) like she's his sister. Later, attractive Ginny Simms (as Carole Hill) laments Grant has never made "a pass" at her. He's not playing Cole Porter, but Grant is playing a scripted "girl shy" man. Most of the story has to do with Grant's romance with beautifully-figured Alexis Smith (as Linda Lee). Grant's reaction to their first real kiss is telling. And, while most "girl shy" characters in Hollywood come around, this one does not. The last romantic scene between Grant's Porter and Ms. Smith dumps the kiss for a friendly hug...Combined with these tentative love scenes, we have Grant playing Porter as what could, then, have been described as "musical" or "light in the loafers." That Grant, director Michael Curtiz and a team of writers cooperated in sending this version of Cole Porter out to the public in 1946 is interesting. We also have bearded Monty Woolley playing the "real-life" role of Porter's mentor. Some of Porter's most successful songs ("Night and Day", "Let's Do It") were about such obvious subtlety. All that being said, the main story fails because it is still ordinary. However, the musical portions are very well done and flow seamlessly into the script...Of several contributions, Ms. Simms' "What Is This Thing Called Love?" is a highlight. The production numbers reach a peak with Carlos Ramirez and the dancers' "Begin the Beguine". As a bonus, Mary Martin performs her star-making hit version of Porter's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy". A legendary stage performer, Ms. Martin translates beautifully to screen in this appearance. Age prevented Martin from making movie versions of her hit plays later on, but her part in "Night and Day" makes one wish we'd seen more of Mary in the movies.****** Night and Day (7/2/46) Michael Curtiz ~ Cary Grant, Monty Woolley, Alexis Smith, Mary Martin

Pleasant but fictional biopic of songwriter Cole Porter, starring Cary Grant and Alexis Smith. The two stars offer very bland performances. This is especially surprising for charismatic Grant. Monty Woolley, Eve Arden, Ginny Simms, and Jane Wyman liven things up in supporting parts. It's a beautiful looking movie, filmed in luscious Technicolor. Great Cole Porter songs are a plus. Cary Grant even sings a couple. Obviously as a biography of Cole Porter, it's hogwash. It does touch upon some of the major events of his life but the details are almost entirely fabricated. As a work of mostly fiction, it's entertaining enough. It goes on a little long, though. Watch it for the musical numbers, if nothing else.

Just a few comments: 1. The image quality of the 2004 Warner Home Video DVD is not up to their usual high standard. Some parts of the film, especially the early portion are very sub-par, scratches, washed out color, and out of registration Technicolor (color fringing, image lacking sharpness). Later portions of the film look as good as modern restorations of 1940's Technicolor do.2. It's doubtful Warners would have had to pay MGM and especially RKO to use Porter songs written for their films, as one reviewer conjectured; Warners owned and still owns the publisher of Porter's music, and Porter probably had enough clout to own rights to his songs rather than the studios some were written for.3. Personally, I find the film inferior in many respects. Except for Mary Martin, the song renditions are a bore. Ginny Simms, the primary vocalist in the picture, had a pleasant trained voice, but her style was bland and she was a zero in the charisma department. The dances and the way they are filmed are mediocre, far below what MGM would have done in this period. Cary Grant often seems uncomfortable in the film, trying to mask this with an insincere smile. Alexis Smith's beautiful face and the believable emotions it's expressing are nearly ruined by the garish, over the top makeup she saddled with. The musical arrangements are merely adequate, very inferior to what the arrangers at MGM and Fox contributed to their musical films, and also very inferior to what Night and Day's music director-arranger Ray Heindorf was capable of later in his career (for example A Star Is Born, and Pete Kelly's Blues).

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.