MovieChat Forums > Night and Day (1946) Discussion > Cary Grant as ... COLE PORTER?

Cary Grant as ... COLE PORTER?


I saw a few bios on Cole Porter with archival footage of the man. He didn't look at all like Cary Grant. Porter was a squat little man with bulging eyes and a bad haircut. After his tragic fall from the horse, his body was all twisted and he lived in considerable pain. His wife, Linda, was quite matronly too.

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You have to remember that Cary Grant was a huge box office draw back then. I guess it has always been that way with biographical movies. The actors that play them in the movie are so much more attractive than the real character. One example I can think of is the movie "Shadowlands". Debra Winger portrayed the American divorcee that married CS Lewis, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins. Her name escapes me now, but she was not as attractive as Debra Winger. Not by a long shot.

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Well Cary Grant got some of the subtext in, despite the sanitized storyline.

At the final scene when his wife Linda embraced the crippled Cole, I was expecting that Grant would give a beaming smile. And yet a closeup of his face showed him tentative, melancholic, almost haunted... not fully invested in a happy ending.

Griffin


Evolution takes no prisoners.

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"Well Cary Grant got some of the subtext in, despite the sanitized storyline.

At the final scene when his wife Linda embraced the crippled Cole, I was expecting that Grant would give a beaming smile. And yet a closeup of his face showed him tentative, melancholic, almost haunted... not fully invested in a happy ending.

Griffin"

I agree I just finished watching it and the ending really hit me. The look on his face was perfect.

Kitty Collins: Tell me, little boy, did you get a whistle or baseball bat with that suit?

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I think it's well documented that Porter requested the casting of Cary Grant. It is obvious why - as Charles Schwarz says in his biography of Porter "even Grant, some say, has illusions of seeing himself portrayed in films by Cary Grant".

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true...however this is a movie, not a documentary. The producers just need to fill the theatres, nothing more. as an aside to your point, i really loved the film.

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<Porter was a squat little man with bulging eyes and a bad haircut.>

If they cast the part based on Porter's physical appearance, they would've put Peter Lorre in the part, and who wants to see Lorre do Cole Porter?

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Isn't it obvious? Cary Grant was, and is the physical embodiment of Cole Porter's music.

The movie is HOGWASH, and I'll be the first to admit it..but I watch it for the music, and Cary Grant's bittersweet performance.

Cary Grant was everything Cole Porter wanted to be, and Porter's music embodied everthing that "Archie Leach" had ever dreamed of...

My eternal thanks to them both.

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I agree that the film is worth it for the music. As much as I like jazz interpretations and modern re-visitings of classic Broadway songs there is something special about hearing them sung in this style. The film captures some great musical performances.

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Yeah, and John Wayne as Genghis Kahn; Chuck Connors as Cochise; and Humphrey Bogart as a test pilot.

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Cole was asked who should portray him in this bio. He facetiously said, "oh, Cary Grant, of course." A better view of Porter's look was done in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris."

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Oscar Levant would have been perfect in the part. Absent him, Peter Lorre. Of course, no one would come to see the movie.

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