This Is the Night

Lili Damita's comic performance as a movie extra hired to pose as a wealthy man's wife might have been the main attraction in the 1932 romantic comedy This Is the Night, but the film's main claim to fame today is Cary Grant in his feature film debut. Even in a fifth-billed role as a jealous husband who finds himself less interested in his wife's straying than in her current amour's beautiful spouse, Grant demonstrated the wit and charm that would make him the screen's top romantic comedian. But when the film was made, it was primarily intended as a showcase for the French Damita's exotic charms and the comic talents of its leading men, comic character actors Charles Ruggles and Roland Young. Young stars as an aging playboy hoping to romance Thelma Todd in Paris while her husband (Grant) is throwing javelins in the Los Angeles Olympics. When Grant returns home suddenly, Young's best friend, Ruggles, hooks him up with Damita, who poses as his wife so the two couples can vacation in Venice. The object of the ruse, Young's affair with Todd, is quickly forgotten when all three men fall for Damita instead. The story started out as the 1923 French play Pouche, by Rene Peter and Henri Falk. Avery Hopwood adapted it as Naughty Cinderella for Broadway, where it starred Irene Bordoni. Paramount bought the film rights and brought it to the screen in 1926 as Good and Naughty, a vehicle for silent-screen sensation Pola Negri. Like many Paramount films made in the early '30s, This Is the Night reflects a distinctly European sensibility. Director Ernst Lubitsch's sophisticated comedies and innovative musicals (the latter influenced by the films of French director Rene Clair) were among the studio's most acclaimed hits, so naturally similar movies sought to capture their unique style. This Is the Night opens with an orchestra (contemporary sources credit Duke Ellington and His Band) warming up under the titles. When Todd loses her skirt in an altercation with a taxi door at the film's start, it turns into a song echoed through the streets of Paris as the story spreads. Later, the "double date" in Venice leads to a variety of risqué scenes as the three men court Damita, suggesting to the audience that more is going on than mere flirtation and is occurring off screen. This did not escape the censors' notice. The Production Code Administration objected to the scene in which Todd loses her skirt, with their chief, Jason Joy, complaining about "a vista of legs and thighs about the knees." He also warned that Young's reaction to the accident suggested that even more had been exposed. That got through, though pressure from the Italian government led Paramount to cut a few comedy bits featuring an ethnic stereotype of Italian policemen. When stricter Production Code enforcement arrived in 1935, Paramount won permission to re-issue the film after excising a scene in which Damita undressed behind a screen. The multi-lingual Damita had come to the U.S. in the early days of talking films. Although under contract to Sam Goldwyn, he had little for her to do, lending her to other studios through most of her career. She seemed an ideal match for Paramount, whose European-style productions also starred Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier. But despite her talents and beauty, Damita never achieved wide popularity among the movie-going public. When the press reviewed This Is the Night, Variety lamented that neither she nor leading man Young provided the film with much in the way of marquee value. That was no problem for a character actor like Young, who would enjoy a long career in scene-stealing supporting roles. But Damita would eventually become more famous for her tempestuous marriage to swashbuckling star Errol Flynn and retire from the screen in 1937. After appearing uncredited in the 1932 short Singapore Sue, Grant had signed a contract with Paramount, which put him into seven films that year, starting with his role as the jealous husband in This Is the Night. Even in a secondary role, he stood out, with Variety's reviewer hailing him as "a potential femme rave." Nonetheless, he was less than pleased with the film and worried that if audiences accepted his losing his wife to the older, less attractive Young it would keep him from finding leading man roles. After the preview, he got drunk and his friends had to convince him not to give up on Hollywood altogether. It would take a year and seven more films for him to emerge as a star when Mae West picked him to star opposite her in She Done Him Wrong (1933). Producer: Benjamin Glazer Director: Frank Tuttle Screenplay: George Marion, Jr. Based on the play Naughty Cinderella by Avery Hopwood, adapted from the play Pouche by Rene Peter, Henri Falk Cinematography: Victor Milner Score: Ralph Rainger Principal Cast: Lili Damita (Germaine), Charlie Ruggles (Bunny West), Roland Young (Gerald Grey), Thelma Todd (Claire), Cary Grant (Stephen), Irving Bacon (Jacques), Claire Dodd (Chou-Chou), Duke Ellington and His Band. BW-78m. by Frank Miller