not horrible nor great

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Am I Missing Something?

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

I just saw "Tonight and Every Night" , last night and I was impressed, not just by the lovely Rita Hayworth but also by Marc Platt, the dancer who plays the role of Tommy. What a wonderful dancer he was and it's a shame that he had only one big dancing scene showcasing his talent and I was wondering if he did any other films and if not many then why? Any way, the film was a lovely story loosely based on the "Windmill Theater" that continued having shows during the Nazi bombing of London. One critic's review from the 70's said that this movie wasn't good enough because Fred Astaire nor Gene Kelly were not dancing with her. I beg to differ this movie showcases Rita Hayworth's talent and she really didn't need the other two great dancers to show how talented she was. It was a very good movie with great numbers and a good romantic story.

The movie's number one sex symbol carried a lot of films to box office success on the strength of her looks and personality. But Rita Hayworth was definitely asked to tote a lot in Tonight And Every Night, a film set during the air attacks on London about a theater that never missed a performance. There was actually such a theater as the Windmill.A whole lot of extravagant musical numbers photographed in gorgeous technicolor are held together by a plot involving Rita being the object of a campaign by Eagle Squadron RAF member Lee Bowman. Though she's warned by fellow performer and best friend Janet Blair that Bowman's a wolf in Eagle Squadron uniform, Rita plunges headlong into things. She's also got dancer Marc Platt interested in her as well.For a British set film, this cast sure had an awful lot of Americans. This film would have been so much better done across the pond with someone like Jessie Matthews or Anna Neagle starring. The numbers are nice enough though, the musical score by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn contained one song, Anywhere which got an Oscar nomination. A much better song of their's that Frank Sinatra sung in Anchors Aweigh, I Fall In Love Too Easily, was also nominated that year, but Rodgers and Hammerstein got the statue that year for It Might As Well Be Spring. Tonight And Every Night also got an Oscar nomination for Best Musical Scoring.The musical numbers are great, but the plot is pretty thin.

Do other reviewers dislike this film because it's not a musical comedy? The movie is a drama about musical performers. Didn't anyone ever hear about "drama with music"? Remember "Gilda"? That was a drama with music too, and not a musical comedy.Is it because it doesn't have a happy ending (boy meets girl and ends up together)? We get plenty of that in current films.The story concerns a second-rate English music hall in a tacky old theater. Would you expect brilliant music and fabulous singing and dancing to come from such an environment? The plot concerns characters just trying to do their jobs and entertain the people while London was being bombed to destruction.Let's face it--most movies of that era weren't expected to be great cinema, and weren't expected to last beyond a brief run in movie theaters. So this isn't a "great" movie, but it's enjoyable enough to watch. At least it's in Technicolor!

You have to cut them some slack since this was filmed at the height of World War II Lee Bowman as leading man was no Gable. He was not even a John Payne. But he was available. The plot is non-existent and the English accents (This is supposed to be London) are laughable. Rita Hayworth looks great, dances acceptably, and has a nice dubbed singing voice. Janet Blair twinkles, and that's about it. Boy dancer Marc Platt was on a rocket to obscurity. The sets appear to be thrown together from available surplus material. If there was a memorable song in this musical, I can't remember it. Most of the people involved, with the possible exception of young Platt, went on to better things.