November Nights: Tonight and Every Night (1945)

RODNEY BOWCOCK: Tonight and Every Night is a story based around the Blitz in London, focusing primarily on Rita Hayworth, Janet Blair and Marc Platt as the stars of the Music Box Theatre, a music hall that never missed a performance. The story is told to a photographer from Life magazine (Jim Bannon), and in between the story of the theater is a romance story between Hayworth and Lee Bowman.

SAMANTHA GLASSER: Tonight and Every Night is based on a real theater called the Windmill Theatre which never closed during the London Blitz. The stage offerings were quite different than in this film; it was a strip joint.

RB: One of the more interesting numbers in the film features ballet dancer Marc Platt, performing interpretative dance to whatever happened to be playing on the radio at the time.

SG: Who can honestly say they've never had the urge to dance to the staccato hate speech of Adolf Hitler? I mean, Columbia really knew how to deliver what the people wanted.

Marc Platt was recruited by a talent scout during his run in "Oklahoma" on Broadway. He learned a Lancashire dialect for his role in Tonight and Every Night. The day before he was to shoot his introductory dance scene, he sprained his ankle, so the director shot other sequences. "In four weeks, I was back at work with a tightly taped foot. I did the dance with only four takes. Maybe that game foot brought me luck," Platt said. He is a fascinating yet mind-boggling addition to the film. His style fits better with the zany Professor Lamberti doing the Great Waldo act than with the genteel traditional numbers that Hayworth performs.

RB: It’s difficult not to note how the film completely grinds to a halt once we finally get to see the Great Waldo act. It could’ve really benefitted from some additional editing and trimming, as what is presented here really seems to be heavily padded for the sake of taking up time.

SG: Hayworth was married to Orson Welles at this time, and just before starting this movie, she discovered she was pregnant. The director opted to shoot the dance sequences first and cover her stomach with large costumes for the in-between scenes. In an attempt to keep up with her scholarly husband, Rita was reading Ivanhoe, and enjoyed it so much, she decided to name their daughter Rebecca. Hayworth is undeniably beautiful, and she is a good dancer, but she doesn't have a strong personality. I struggle to describe her outside of her looks. The Film Daily called this movie, "A satisfying musical romance in which Rita Hayworth has ample opportunity to exercise every facet of her talent." Janet Blair is a more winning actress, though her own beauty is overshadowed by her co-star. Photoplay felt differently, saying, "Janet Blair is fair as Rita’s buddy but Lee Bowman as her Royal Air Force beau is handsome and fetching even if his acting capabilities aren’t taxed too seriously."

RB: I suppose I can agree that this film doesn’t contain Hayworth’s finest acting, but, as you note, she is undeniably gorgeous and a fantastic dancer, and in this film, those things seem to be the most important features. I would note that she does a very nice job of portraying her uncertain and uneasy feelings that she has for Paul, and being an American trapped in London surely would’ve endeared her to audiences of the day. Unlike Photoplay, I felt that Bowman (Cincinnati born), who often gets a bad rap when it comes to acting, wasn’t bad at all in this film.

SG: This film is beautifully shot. Cinematographer Rudolph Mate is to be properly praised. In one overhead shot of the trio dancing, the stage and surroundings look monochromatic while the dancers are colorful and stand out in a way that is truly striking. Mate would go on to shoot the iconic images of Hayworth as Gilda the following year.

RB: Mate worked with Hayworth many times, frankly in better films than this one, Cover Girl, Down To Earth and, of course, Gilda are masterpieces that edge this one out, as it was just very good.

The neighborhood theaters liked this one pretty well. “Many good comments from my patrons. Technicolor good, story fair and the box office good,” noted Miss Cleo Manry of the Buena Vista Theatre, Buena Vista, GA. “Beautiful stage settings, but it lacks a good story. I wish they would eliminate these blue songs. They all walk to the lobby and get a drink to avoid these blue songsters,” griped Ben Brinck of the West Point Theatre in West Point, IA.

SG: Overall, I found the movie to be fine, but it could have been great. It exists more in service of the musical numbers than the actual plot. I would have appreciated more scenes of people hiding in shelters during the bombings and suffering from rationing. This theater seems to have an endless supply of costumes and fabric, showing the scriptwriters Lesser Samuels and Abem Finkel's emphasis on entertainment over historical accuracy. Three stars.

RB: In many ways, this is a typical big budget Hollywood musical. The Technicolor is eye-popping, Rita is as beautiful as ever, the songs are big and the plot is light. But your criticisms are warranted, although I don’t think audiences in 1944 needed to see the footage of bombings and rationing. That was all in the newsreel that they’d have seen before this light and colorful musical. At this point especially audiences were tired of being reminded of the war in movies, so it’s understandable why these things were left out. The magnetism of Rita and the charisma of Janet Leigh were enough to keep me watching this glossy big budget musical. Three and a half stars.