Jan 18 Movie: Night and Day. Largely fictionalized Cole Porter biopic is more fun after having read a Porter biography (Noel and Cole), which makes the fictions more glaringly apparent. In the movie Porter is not only a WWI war hero, but a proud, self-made man who refuses the money of his well-to-do family and his millionaire wife Linda (they marry later in the movie than in real life) because he wants to succeed on his own. Hilarious scenes include Porter working at a department store music counter, writing songs on his lunch hour, when at that time in his life he and Linda were actually busy giving and attending parties at their Upper East Side penthouse, their Paris home and their Venice hotel suite. I read that Porter could have been successful much sooner if he'd been more serious about his work and devoted less time to his high society lifestyle. (I wanted to write "jet-set" but I doubt they were called that in the 1920s.)
Alas, having read Noel and Cole made me enjoy the music in the film less. Because apparently the producers had originally planned on cameo appearances by all the Broadway stars to do the songs they had made famous. But then for budget reasons they decided to use no-name studio singers instead. Watching some fairly unremarkable singer do "I've Got You Under My Skin," when I knew it should have been Ethel Merman, kind of stuck in my craw.
Another note of historical revisionism that stuck in my craw: they show the opening night of The Gay Divorce, sans Fred Astaire of course, but the playbill uses the censored movie title "The Gay Divorcee." (Apparently the movie board felt that a divorce could not be a happy event, but a divorcee could be happy about getting one.) I guess when practically the whole movie was made up out of whole cloth I shouldn't waste my time even noticing a tiny detail like that.
There was one bonus in the film though: a small appearance by Alan Hale Sr. as a Broadway producer who rejects "Mrs. Otis Regrets" because "I hear it here" (taps his ear) "but I don't feel here" (thumps his heart). I've been thinking about having an "Alan Hale Sr. Month" sometime this year, and seeing as many of his movies as I can. That would be fun.
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