★ 6 / 10
The “Windmill” theatre in London was renowned for
CinemaSerf
The “Windmill” theatre in London was renowned for staying open throughout the blitz and it’s there that this wartime feel-good comedic romance is set. Here it…
The “Windmill” theatre in London was renowned for staying open throughout the blitz and it’s there that this wartime feel-good comedic romance is set. Here it has been renamed the “Music Box” and is the home of an entertainment that never misses a night, even as the doodlebugs rain down on the determined population. “Sam” (Ernest Cossart) is the stoic stage manager and it’s through his eyes that we take a trip down memory lane and meet the formidable “Tolly” (Florence Bates doing her best Dame May Whitty) who is casting for her latest song and dance show. Rather curiously, a dapper young gent from Manchester appears with no set routine. He just likes to improvise his dancing to whatever he hears on the radio. He demonstrates and she likes it and him, but concludes she can’t use him. Luckily for “Tommy” (Marc Platt), two of her company try to change her mind by teaching him something he can do again, and again… “Ros” (Rita Hayworth) and “Judy” (Janet Blair) are Americans doing their bit for the war effort and this is frequently a perilous undertaking. It’s in the under-stage air-raid shelter that “Ros” encounters RAF pilot “Lundy” (Lee Bowman) and who knows, perhaps a romance might blossom? Well if it will, it’s going to be a bumpy ride for just about everyone, including the smitten “Tommy”, and the war has no intentions of sitting on the sidelines whilst they work out the rituals of courtship. It’s really that last point that is most poignantly illustrated here, but along the way there are quite a few nicely performed on-stage routines that allow Hayworth to show she had quite a few strings to her bow, as do the engagingly employed Blair and Platt. Sammy Cahn and Jule Steyn present a soundtrack that has a certain familiarity to it without ever really delivering that killer number, though perhaps “Anywhere” - actually sung by Blair - stands out. It’s a lively and colourful film that shows a perseverance and spirit of optimism from those on the ground during the Second World War and it also illustrates just how crucial these shows were for the military in diverting their attention from more dangerous matters.
★ 8 / 10
Dazzling! Rita Hayworth at the top of her power!
JohnHowardReid
Producer: Victor Saville. Songs by Sammy Cahn (lyrics) and Jule Styne (music): "You Excite Me" (Mears, danced by Hayworth, Cole and company); "Tonight and…
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.
33%
AUDIENCE
6.3/10
1.3K
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is the language of the movie English or finish?