USA,
1945, 92 min
Shown in 1972
CREDITS
- dir
-
Victor Saville
- cast
-
Rita Hayworth
- prod co
-
Columbia Productions
- source
-
Columbia Productions
-
COMMENTS
Shown at the Rita Hayworth tribute. Rita Hayworth in person.
OTHER
After the success of Cover Girl (1944), Rita Hayworth was presented in several musical films in Technicolor (which had become absolutely necessary for wartime escapist cinema), and Tonight and Every Night was a surprisingly excellent film—exhibiting more experimentalism in choreographic concept and definitely assertive in its representation of Miss Hayworth as the epitome of American glamor. The wartime spirit and exuberance of musical style is very evident in this film; although we were at war, the tribute in this story is to wartime London where, at the famous Windmill Theater in Piccadilly, the shows never stopped, even during the Blitz. The setting is there, with Rita as a very American showgirl who works “tonight and every night.” The script is based upon a play by Leslie Storm (Heart of a City) about the milieu of show business and, although everyone in the leading roles has a Yankee accent, one must overlook such small points. There is a romance between Miss Hayworth and a dashing RAF man (Lee Bowman), a slight framework on which to suspend several clever musical numbers. Miss Hayworth’s fiery tresses were first used in this film with the lyrical abandon generally associated with her image, in a number aptly entitled “You Excite Me”; the samba rhythms of this choreographic offering were counterbalanced by the ballet techniques of Marc Platt who was heralded as a new discovery after his sensation dances in Oklahoma! on Broadway. Janet Blair also exhibited her lyric talents to fine advantage here in some stylish songs and dances both solo and with Miss Hayworth. The star, in the “Cry and You Cry Alone” sequence, gave a preview of her future, impersonating a Greek goddess, at the time not realizing that someday she would actually play such a role. Tonight and Every Night is a tuneful toast to Rita Hayworth as musical muse; made at the peak of her glamor period, it still warms the sense and recreates something of the gallant cheeriness of the recent past.
—Albert Johnson
FACTOID #10
In 1960, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, which has inspired many women to jump into fountains, was pulled from the San Francisco International Film Festival’s program by the distributor and replaced with Roberto Rossellini’s Night over Rome.
