This Is the Night (film)

This Is the Night

Theatrical poster with Lilli Damita and Cary Grant
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Produced by Benjamin Glazer (uncredited)
Written by Benjamin Glazer
George Marion Jr.
play Naughty Cinderella
Avery Hopwood
play Pouche
Henry Falk
René Peter
Starring Lili Damita
Charles Ruggles
Roland Young
Thelma Todd
Cary Grant
Music by Ralph Rainger
W. Franke Harling (uncredited)
John Leipold (uncredited)
Cinematography Victor Milner
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • April 8, 1932
Running time
 80 min
Country United States
Language English

This Is the Night is a 1932 comedy film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Lili Damita, Charles Ruggles, Roland Young, Thelma Todd, and Cary Grant.

The picture is based on the 1923 play Pouche by Henri Falk and René Peter, and the 1925 English-language adaptation Naughty Cinderella written by Avery Hopwood. The plays had already been adapted for film once before as Good and Naughty (1926) with Pola Negri.

Night scenes in this film were intended to be seen in blue tint. Tinting is used on the restored 2011 DVD version released by Turner Classic Movies. However, tinting was absent from recent prints prior to restoration. The version shown on the TCM cable channel in the 1990s was not tinted.

This is the Night is Cary Grant's feature film debut. He disliked his role, believing that a man accepting the unfaithfulness of his wife so calmly was unbelievable. After seeing the film, he decided to quit the movie industry; his friend Orry-Kelly talked him out of it.[1]

Plot

When Claire Mathewson's (Thelma Todd) husband Stephen (Cary Grant) comes back unexpectedly from the 1932 Summer Olympics, where he was supposed to compete in the javelin throw, he discovers the train tickets for a romantic Venice getaway she has planned with her lover Gerald (Roland Young). Gerald's friend Bunny (Charles Ruggles) lies and says that the tickets are actually for Gerald and his wife. With Stephen still suspicious, Gerald must find a fake wife to go to Venice with him. He tries to hire the actress Chou-Chou (Claire Dodd), but since her boyfriend is a jealous man, she gives the job to out-of-work Germaine (Lili Damita), who needs the 2000 franc fee to keep from starving. At first, Gerald thinks she is too demure, but she soon convinces him that she can pretend to be a glamorous wife.

The two couples go to Venice. Bunny, attracted to Germaine, decides to join them. On the train, Stephen questions Gerald and Germaine about how they met. When they arrive in Venice, Claire quickly becomes jealous, as both Stephen and Gerald seem fascinated by Germaine. Claire eventually demands that Gerald send Germaine away immediately, so he orders her to leave the next day. Meanwhile, a drunken Bunny climbs a ladder into Germaine's bedroom and offers to take her away. After she turns down his offer, he falls into a canal on his way out and is apprehended by two policemen. Stephen believes he hears a burglar and goes to her room to investigate. The two are then caught in a seemingly compromising position by Gerald and Claire. However, Bunny reappears and explains what really happened. Her love for her husband rekindled, Claire breaks off her affair with Gerald. Germaine reveals to Gerald that she is not in fact Chou-Chou and decides to return to Paris, but Gerald catches up to her in a gondola and asks her to marry him.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ Eliot, Marc (2005). Cary Grant: A Biography. Random House. pp. 63–4. ISBN 0-307-20983-0.

External links