This Is the Night

Frank Tuttle was a highly competent house director for many years, working for Sam Goldwyn, Paramount and so forth, turning out well-made movies in which the style served the story. In our day of auteur worship and the insistence that, if a critic can't tell who directed a film without looking at the credits, it is not a good film, craftsmen like Tuttle are considered hacks. I disagree. You may disagree with me. We'll leave that unsettled for the moment and thumb wrestle over it later.

This movie has all the earmarks of a Lubitsch picture: the European settings (Paris, Hollywood, which Lubitsch said he much preferred to Paris France; Venice, where he had set the opening of TROUBLE IN PARADISE two years earlier) and is the sort of racy European comedy that Paramount specialized in until the Production Code killed them dead later that year. The setups are all Lubitsch: the recitative number "Madame Has Lost Her Dress" that opens the movie; The sexual imagery of Cary Grant carrying around a bagful of javelins and reducing Roland Young and Charlie Ruggles to blithering idiocy; Thelma Todd in her underwear; and into this mess lands Lily Damita, an honest girl reduced to sleeping on movie sets: trouble in Paris, Hollywood.

Although Tuttle lacks the ability to direct actors in the small, exquisite details that Lubitsch did, he had a fine hand at framing and storyline. The movie is near perfect, except for the miscasting of Roland Young as the love interest..... but perhaps that is the point of the matter: we do not always fall in love with Maurice Chevalier.

"This Is The Night" is noteworthy primarily because it marks Cary Grant's feature debut, but can stand on its own as a prime example of Pre-Code comedy. Some of the subject matter and situations must have been regarded as naughty for its time, but as with many of Hollywood's Pre-code movies it is pretty tame by today's standards.

It is quite funny, but you have to give it a chance to warm up, as it takes a few minutes to get underway. The humor is very subtle and probably wouldn't go over well with modern audiences (see Adam Sandler). It comes with some unique quirks, like Cary Grant delivering a few lines in song, but once into the picture some old pros take over. Roland Young and Charles Ruggles, two veterans of the stage, have some of the best exchanges of situational dialogue and are aided by Thelma Todd, a comedienne who had a bright future but who was murdered around the time of the film's release. Her murder was never solved. Cary Grant plays it straight and Lili Damita is everyone's love interest but is the weakest member of the cast. It is very much like a filmed play, with just a few indoor sets, and there are only six cast members. The blue-tinted nighttime scenes were a nice, unexpected touch.

In short, it is well worth your time but give it a chance to get past the slow beginning. It is actually a quick 80 minutes.

Lili Damita sleeps, stretched across a luxurious bed…until a man wakes her up and tells her to move and we discover that she's a struggling actress sneaking some sleep on a quiet movie set. –Appearances are frequently misleading in this witty and ultimately charming comedy of manners, deceit and romance.

A great cast of more or less sympathetic characters surrounds the lovely Damita:

Roland Young and Charlie Ruggles are fine as a pair of wealthy gentlemen of Paris. Young is about to embark on a clandestine Venetian trip with girlfriend Thelma Todd—when her husband, Olympic javelin-thrower Cary Grant, unexpectedly returns home. One lie leads to another, and soon Young has hired an actress—Damita, eager to accept any job—to pose as his wife, and the whole gang boards a train for Venice.

Thelma Todd is excellent as the deceiving wife jealous of her lover's new partner; we don't get to see Todd angry in many of her movies, but smoke positively comes out of her ears here. Cary Grant—very youthful and athletic, bag of javelins slung over his shoulder—has a minor role but is awfully fun to watch (in his first picture).

Roland Young is outstanding as the would-be cosmopolitan lover who can't quite control either Damita or Todd; his face and mannerisms express varying degrees of discomfort, frustration and worry as he struggles to keep multiple relationships from caving in on him.

A hilarious running gag involves chauffeur Irving Bacon repeatedly catching Thelma's dress—in a car door, for example—and accidentally pulling it off.

Overall, it's very funny, with a plot that is tough to predict…and somewhat surprisingly, it gradually turns into a very sweet picture, at that. Very enjoyable, especially for fans of these great character actors—and well worth watching just to see Roland Young and the great Thelma Todd together.

I always wonder when I see the lists of "the hundred best films ever made" etc. You see, there is one thing that I have discovered over the years of delving around in old films, and it is this. It is not possible to compile lists of the best films ever made for the simple reason that some of the best films ever made are lying forgotten on shelves in film libraries, and, sadly, some are lost. There are so many great films that the public never get to see. The critics will have you believe that pictures like This is the Night is not particularly good, and is only of interest to fans of Cary Grant and Thelma Todd. People have forgotten all about it. The director, the star, the film is today forgotten.

Then you play the film. The acting is utterly superb, the comic timing superb. The film is cleverly and adventurously put together by the film makers. All the players, Grant, Todd, Ruggles and Young are excellent.

What is there to say about the lead, Damita? Well, with the coming of talking pictures, Damita with her French accent found it tough to get parts that would utilise her exceptional talents. Here is an exception. Not many people know that at Hollywood parties Damita was Chaplin's number one rival when it came to mime during party pieces. In one scene, we get a glimpse at the sort of thing that helped the Hollywood parties go with a swing. In dialogue Damita's comic timing is spot on, which just goes to show that you do not have to be mug ugly to be a comedienne. When she is on screen the laughter is the loudest. And sex appeal? She has been called "a French bombshell." If so, the French have to test her in the Pacific.

It would be criminal to ruin it all by telling everybody what the plot is. All I will say is that if you are not smiling or laughing at this film from beginning to end, then there is something wrong with YOU.

So next time you see a list of the 100 best films ever made, ignore it. My advice to you is to go out and find your own 100 best films. If you don't, you could miss gems like this, and the loser will be YOU.

This Is the Night (1932)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Hilarious pre-code from Paramount has Roland Young playing Gerald Gray, a man dating a married woman (Thelma Todd). Things take a turn for the worse when the couple return to her home to find her husband (Cary Grant) there and in order to stay out of trouble the man's best friend (Charles Ruggles) tells the husband that the friend is actually married and the happy couple are on their way to Venice. The husband, not a bit fooled, decides to go along on the trip so the friend must find a fake wife (Lili Damita) to go along with the plan. This is a remake of a 1926 film and it's based on the play Naughty Cinderella. The naughty is certainly correct because this Paramount comedy has quite a few pre-code elements that would soon find themselves banned. Needless to say, having a film centered around a married woman dating other men was certainly a no no but it makes for one great laugh after another. After viewing the film I was really shocked to see that it wasn't more popular because the familiar cast is terrific and we get so many sexual jokes that it really stands out. The dialogue certainly implies many dirty jokes including one bit about "B.J." as well as our two lead actresses showing some skin. Of course we don't get any actual nudity but there's a very charming scene of Damita proving she can be naughty by taking her clothes off and coming off like a vixen. There's also a running joke with Todd constantly getting her clothes ripped off in a variety of ways. Both women have their legs constantly being shown as well as every other bit of skin they can get on camera. These elements certainly give the film a fresh touch and a pretty sexual one as well. Then we have the terrific performances that make the film memorable. Damita, who I had just seen in FRIENDS AND LOVERS, is must better here and in fact turns in a hilarious performance. I was really shocked to see how great she was here because her comic timing is right on the mark and she also plays the more dramatic, romantic moments just as well. Her coming timing really makes her character come to life and her previously mentioned seduction scene was priceless. Ruggles nearly steals the film as the silly assistant who gets this whole thing started. Todd delivers one of the best performances I've seen from her as her timing is great and just check out the wonderful scene where her married character gets jealous by her lover's fake wife. Young is also right on the mark and his chemistry with Damita is great. Then we have Cary Grant in his first role. I was surprised to see how natural he was but he plays the jerkish husband to perfection. I think the film starts to wear thin during the final act when every ones love starts to pour out but everything leading up to this is quite priceless. The performances, sexuality and laughs make this a must-see for fans of classic cinema.