Starring Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Monty Woolley, and Ginny Simms
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Warners put a lot on this story of the early career of songwriter Cole Porter being their equivalent of the big-budget biographical extravaganzas MGM released during in the 40's. They spent over $300,000 to buy many of Porter's best songs, then another $100,000 to get Cary Grant out of his Columbia contract. The production had trouble from the get-go. Grant and Curtiz clashed frequently. Grant thought the script was a load of nonsense, kept having it re-written, and wouldn't act in scenes he didn't like. Filming was impeded by a set builder's strike as well. After all that, how did this version of Porter's life story come out? Let's begin with Monty Woolley (himself) at Yale and find out...
The Story: Unlike Gershwin, Porter (Grant) didn't survive a hardscrabble childhood. He grew up in Indiana and studied law at Yale, mainly to please his grandfather. After his fight song is chosen for the school's official song, he knows law isn't what he wants to do. His professor Monty Woolley (himself) encourages him to get into show business. He finally leaves the school, writes a show, and dates Linda Lee (Smith), an old friend of the family.
After being wounded in the French Foreign Legion during World War I, he resumes his writing career. He also marries Linda, and they are fond of each other, but his music and partying always comes first. Porter finally sees Broadway success with the late 20's hits Paris and Fifty Million Frenchmen and Wake Up and Dream in London. He goes from hit to hit after that..but Linda has finally had it with his parties and devotion to music and leaves. At least, until Porter is in a horseback riding accident that damages his legs and his spirit...
The Song and Dance: Woolley seems to be having the most fun as Porter's long-time college buddy on and off the screen. When the movie stays as intimate as Porter's songs and focuses on little moments between Porter and his grandfather, or Woolley, or Linda, it's actually quite lovely. There's a few amusing cameos, including Eve Arden's attempt at a French accent as a chanteuse in Paris who introduces "I'm Unlucky at Gambling," and a stunning Technicolor production that includes extravagant gowns and furs for the ladies and the lavish sets that I'm glad the set builders were finally able to finish.
Favorite Number: We kick off with Porter and Woolley leading the male chorus through "Bulldog, Bulldog," one of the songs Porter wrote at Yale. Porter's friend Gracie Harris eagerly performs "I'm In Love Again" at Porter's school show. Porter introduces his mother to his first big hit song, the resolutely sentimental "Old-Fashioned Garden," at their Indiana home. Three chorus girls sing "You've Got That Thing" at the rehearsals for Porter's show See America First. Wyman has more fun with the Porter hit "Let's Do It." She joins the chorus for "You Do Something to Me" as they prance in sunflower-trimmed dresses and canes that move themselves...but the audience is distracted by the announcement that the Lusitania sunk.
Arden's attempt at "I'm Unlucky In Gambling" in a French accent is totally absurd. Woolley does far better by "Miss Otis Regrets," which he actually did help Porter introduce in real-life. Radio singer Ginny Simms does equally well with some of Porter's biggest hits, including "What Is This Thing Called Love" and a delightful "You're the Top" with Grant outside at Porter's palatial home. Simms' "Just One of Those Things" is a big chorus number, with dancer Estelle Sloan tapping away with a stage New York in the background. "Night and Day," performed by Bill Days, also gets big as the chorus do an arty ballet. "Begin the Beguine" goes tropical with dancers Milada Mladova and George Zurich doing a passionate routine to Carlos Ramerez's song.
Two of Porter's biggest hits are done almost exactly as they were introduced. Mary Martin made a splash in the cooing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" on Broadway. The number is perfectly recreated here, with Martin cavorting in furs among Alaskan chorus boys until she goes into a stripping routine near the end. Roy Rodgers gives us the closest Porter got to a country song, "Don't Fence Me In," in a scene clipped from Warners' Hollywood Canteen.
Trivia: This was Grant's first film in color, and his biggest moneymaker for years.
Cole Porter originally suggested Grant play him as a joke, since Grant looked nothing like him. He didn't expect the studio to take his word seriously. If anything, Porter thought he looked more like Fred Astaire.
The blonde drummer on the bandstand during the "You're the Top" number is a young Mel Torme.
What I Don't Like: Hoooooo boy. They really had to whitewash this one...because Porter was as open about his homosexuality as you could get away with in the early and mid-20th century. Yes, he and Linda did stay married until her death in 1954, and he was genuinely fond of her, but it was a marriage of convenience. Ginny Simms is supposed to represent Ethel Merman, and while she does somewhat resemble her physically and can sing well, she lacks Merman's nervy charisma. Woolley was Porter's classmate at Yale, not his teacher. Porter did join the French Foreign Legion during World War I, but he wasn't wounded, and in fact, spent a lot of the war partying and writing songs.
The irony of all this is Porter's most dramatic years were ahead of him. He made a comeback in 1948 with the smash hit stage show Kiss Me Kate and continued to write musicals on stage and screen until 1958. Linda's death in 1954 hurt him badly, and after years of pain, he finally lost his battle with his legs and had them amputated in 1960. He spent the last four years of his life in deep pain and seclusion.
Porter's songs were known for their intimacy. Most of his musicals were farces or intimate bedroom comedies with small casts. When they run with this, as with Woolley's "Miss Otis Regrets" or Grant and Simms' "You're the Top," the movie works. Warners didn't have the resources or the personnel for artier chorus routines. "Night and Day" and "I've Got You Under My Skin" are particularly ridiculous in that regard. Grant had a point about the script, too. It really could get absurd, like Porter practically begging for his grandfather's permission to become a composer. Grant seems embarrassed to be there, and Smith is a block of ice and has no chemistry with him.
The Big Finale: Mainly for fans of Grant, Porter, or the big bold "biopics" of the 1940's.
Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming.
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