I agree that Night and Day is a hoot. Grant (as Porter) spends the first half of the film ardently pursuing a much younger Alexis Smith (as Linda) in standard boy wants girl plotting. However, immediately after they wed, he does everything he can to avoid intimacy with her, constantly promising a romantic honeymoon trip, but then renigging because there is always another show to do. I sometimes wonder if this was Hollywood's "wink wink" way of implying Porter wasn't up to consummating his marriage. Before we figure out the answer to that provocative notion, Linda leaves him, Porter is seriously injured in an accident, and Linda dutifully returns to him. I, nevertheless, concur that the film is worth seeing if only for Mary Martin's definitive performance of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy".
Regarding De-Lovely, if they wanted to tell Porter's story right, they should have cast someone matronly like Margo Martindale as Linda instead of the sexy Ashley Judd. |
