Cette nuit et toujours

This is not the kind of musical where the leads just start singing and dancing in mid-conversation. Almost all the song and dance occurs as performance on stage. The stage is located in the historic Windmill Theatre, in London, which is called the Music Box in this film. During the London blitz, the theater was known for never missing a performance. The film pays tribute to that record and, more broadly and more importantly, to the spirit of those who braved the blitzkrieg in London.

Released in the first few days of 1945, "Tonight and Every Night" is meant as a patriotic film to rouse spirits. There is a love story, but it is secondary to the larger story.

Rita Hayworth stars as stage performer Rosalind Bruce. She and her coworkers put on five shows a day at the Music Box. Their story is primarily told, in flashback, to a reporter from Life Magazine who is doing a spread about the theater. Janet Blair plays Judy Kane, Rosalind's best friend and fellow dancer. Marc Platt plays the part of Tommy Lawson, the other major dancer. His dance is the highlight of the film. Lee Bowman plays the pilot (Paul Lundy) who wins Rosalind's heart.

Though many scenes are darkened due to the London blackouts, the Technicolor really stands out in some spots. The designers who created the fashions worn by Rita and the others also deserve mention.

This film is based on a real theater and theater troop during WWII. The theater never closed its doors despite the Blitz with bombs falling all around and over it. (It was an underground theater.) It's a part of England's history.

This isn't the best film ever made, but certainly not the worst as some have made it out to be. It's simply a light musical mixed with drama.

To see another take on this story be sure to see "Mrs. Henderson Presents" with Dame Judy Dench and Bob Hoskins. It's a fantastic film that really presents the way it was "back then." I know, because I was around then and this film brought back some good and some bad memories.

DLMc

Rita Hayworth is an American performer during the blitz in "Tonight and Every Night." The film is based on the true story of a theater that kept going during the horrific bombings London suffered, unlike other theaters, which closed their doors. In the film, a photographer from Life arrives to do a feature about the theater and hears a story about Rita and friends from a stagehand.

What a gorgeous woman and dancer Rita was, and what charisma! She sparkles on the screen and is stunningly beautiful in this Technicolor film. She looks like her magazine covers - perfect. Lee Bowman is her leading man, Janet Blair plays her best friend, and Marc Platt, a Broadway dancer who is an absolute dynamo, plays a fellow performer.

There really isn't much to this script, except that there's a somewhat unexpected plot twist and the ending isn't as expected. We're looking in one direction while the script goes in another. There are some nifty production numbers and some pretty songs - better, I think, than those found in another Hayworth vehicle, Down to Earth.

Rita's voice is always dubbed, but I wonder if she could sing or could have sung with some training. Guess we'll never know.

Seeing Rita is always worth it.

I just saw "Tonight and Every Night" , last night and I was impressed, not just by the lovely Rita Hayworth but also by Marc Platt, the dancer who plays the role of Tommy. What a wonderful dancer he was and it's a shame that he had only one big dancing scene showcasing his talent and I was wondering if he did any other films and if not many then why? Any way, the film was a lovely story loosely based on the "Windmill Theater" that continued having shows during the Nazi bombing of London. One critic's review from the 70's said that this movie wasn't good enough because Fred Astaire nor Gene Kelly were not dancing with her. I beg to differ this movie showcases Rita Hayworth's talent and she really didn't need the other two great dancers to show how talented she was. It was a very good movie with great numbers and a good romantic story.

I'm floored, I 'm devastated, I could never imagine I would enjoy this film as immensely as I just did.

Yesterday I saw "The Lady is Willing" -1942- with Marlene Dietrich, and although both films belong to the same era and in both there is froth and the morality of the time, they are worlds apart; Marlene looks like an embalmed corpse while Rita Hayworth is Mother Earth personified, all beauty, glamour and warmth, plus an excellent actress and a superb dancer, maybe the best dancer of all times for this kind of vehicle.

"Tonight and Every Night" is so very well put together that it's almost a miracle, incredible how professional those people were!! Top drawer each one in whatever they were doing: The scriptwriters, the technical film crew, the dancers, the choreographers, wow, everybody and everything!! Let aside the war propaganda very understandable for those years, I was so impressed by the camaraderie, the human bondage between the company members, the warmth the whole movie is wrapped in...

Rita Hayworth is so lovely that seems to be unreal, but not unreal the way Marlene was unreal, Marlene could freeze you on the spot with just a look, Rita doesn't look fake, she is just adorable and human. Maybe the rouge on her cheeks and the eye shadow are a bit too much, but the whole movie being a fantasy, who cares!

The costumes are gorgeous, the color combinations are superb, all the dancers, male and female, have the most slender figures anyone can imagine, they look like Barbie dolls, but human --I don't know how to put it-- we talk so much nowadays about that controversial subject, anorexia, well, already in those years they have these slim figures we have nowadays, but inexplicably, they don't look emaciated, they look incredibly healthy!!

An interesting detail was that all these chorus girls were...virgins... well, according to their behavior in this movie they were. Enough, I think I made it clear that I liked this movie, didn't I?