Night and Day

Ok, so this may not be a very factual biopic of Cole Porter, however, Cary Grant as Cole Porter does a formidable job in the lead and Alexis Smith provides solid support as Linda. Michael Curtiz was a great director in the 40's and 50's, and he did his best work in this genre.

The bluray presentation from Warner Archive is a welcome addition. The visual restoration is truly spectacular. The technicolor cinematography simply pops off the screen and the audio quality is very solid. Warner Archive has done a brilliant job in restoring this one. Definitely another one to add to the collection.

Biopics of musical composers were rather popular throughout the 1940s and into the early 1950s.  These were enjoyable films as a rule, full of splendid music, but they all tended to be more than a little bit inaccurate regarding the details of the lives they portrayed.  "Night and Day," the (supposed) true-life story of Cole Porter's life, is even more inaccurate than most of these films; perhaps 95% of the plot is total fiction?  Nothing to do with reality.

So, just ignore the story and enjoy the music!  And there's a lot of it to be had here; the film contains excerpts from nearly two dozen Porter tunes.  Absolutely first-rate songs.  Still, the plot was weak enough that I found myself thinking "Less talking, more singing!" as the film unspooled.  Heh.

Warners did a decent enough job with the film, but I'd have to say MGM still had the edge with their musical biopics.  The plots may have been every bit as fictional and irrelevant as you see in this film, but the MGM pictures had the edge in production values; their films had a higher gloss, so to speak.

Still, anyone who enjoys Porter's music will want to give this one a try.  It makes an interesting pairing with 2004's "De-Lovely," a somewhat more accurate portrayal of Porter's life (though still fictionalized in its own way).

I have to say, this new blu-ray transfer is simply STUNNING.  The film looks fantastic; the colour is gorgeous.  So, a qualified recommendation---watch it for the music, not the story.