8/10
Dazzling! Rita Hayworth at the top of her power!
22 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Producer: Victor Saville. Songs by Sammy Cahn (lyrics) and Jule Styne (music): "You Excite Me" (Mears, danced by Hayworth, Cole and company); "Tonight and Every Night" (Blair, reprized Mears); "Anywhere" (Blair); "The Boy I Left Behind" (Mears, Blair); "Cry and You Cry Alone" (Mears, danced by Hayworth and Platt); "What Does an English Girl Think of a Yank?" (Mears). Music director: Morris Stoloff. Orchestral arrangements: Marlin Skiles. Vocal arrangements: Saul Chaplin. Dances staged by Jack Cole and Val Raset.

Copyright 22 February 1945 by Columbia Pictures Corporation. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 8 March 1945 (ran two weeks). U.S. release: 22 February 1945. U.K. release: 21 May 1945. Australian release: 25 October 1945. 8,484 feet. 94 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Based on a real London revue theater, The Windmill, which never missed a single performance during the blitz, the fictitious screen story tells of a wartime romance between a showgirl and a flier.

NOTES: "Anywhere" was nominated for Best Song, but lost to "It Might As Well Be Spring", a Rodgers and Hammerstein number from State Fair. Marlin Skiles and Morris Stoloff were nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, losing to Georgie Stoll's Anchors Aweigh. Oddly, although Tonight and Every Night rates as one of the most beautifully photographed Technicolor films ever made, Rudolph Maté's absolutely superb cinematography (which he accomplished without the usual aid of a specialist cameraman from the Technicolor company) was not nominated at all.

Film debut of Marc Platt. The character played by Florence Bates was modeled on the formidable real-life Sheila Van Damm.

The original stage presentation produced by Gilbert Miller, opened on Broadway in February 1942. The cast featured Gertrude Musgrove, Beverly Roberts, Margot Grahame, Romney Brent, Richard Ainsley, Dennis Hoey and Lloyd Gough.

COMMENT: Aside from the lilting "Anywhere" and the title tune, the songs form a most disappointing feature of this otherwise richly endowed musical entertainment. The costumes, the art direction, the dancing and the color cinematography are all nothing short of dazzling.

The story maintains the interest more than adequately, the acting varies from spirited (Janet Blair, Marc Platt, Florence Bates) to engrossing (Rita Hayworth) to so-so (Lee Bowman). Direction rates as highly competent. Production values are mind-blowing.

OTHER VIEWS: A truly lush production number, "You Excite Me", is probably Rita's all-time best staged and performed song. Another number from this film, "Cry and You Cry Alone", runs a close second. — Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth.
6 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed