Tonight and Every Night
| Tonight and Every Night | |
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| Directed by | Victor Saville |
| Produced by | Victor Saville |
| Written by | Abem Finkel Lesser Samuels |
| Based on |
Heart of a City 1942 play by Lesley Storm |
| Starring |
Rita Hayworth Lee Bowman Janet Blair |
| Music by |
George Duning Marlin Skiles |
| Cinematography | Rudolph Maté |
| Edited by | Viola Lawrence |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Tonight and Every Night is a 1945 American musical film directed by Victor Saville and starring Rita Hayworth, Lee Bowman and Janet Blair. The film portrays wartime romance and tragedy in a London musical show, loosely modelled on the Windmill Theatre in Soho, that determined not to miss a single performance during the Blitz. Hayworth plays an American showgirl who falls in love with an RAF pilot played by Bowman.
The film was adapted from the play Heart of a City by Lesley Storm. It was used as a Technicolor vehicle for Rita Hayworth after her success with Cover Girl. It was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Music, Original Song (for "Anywhere") and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture. A major highlight of the film is Hayworth in the "You Excite Me" number, a number often cited as one of Hayworth's best performances.
Near the end of the war, a reporter from Life magazine comes to the Music Box Theatre in London to write a story about the music hall that never missed putting on a performance during the Blitz. Stage manager Sam Royce recalls the halcyon days at the beginning of the war: Theatrical impresario May "Tolly" Tolliver is rehearsing her performers when dancer Tommy Lawson comes to audition. Although Tommy is a naturally gifted dancer, he improvises all his steps and consequently, Tolly refuses to hire him. Taking pity on Tommy, Americans Rosalind Bruce and Judy Kane, members of the troupe, teach him their routines, and he wins a part in the show.
One night, RAF pilot Paul Lundy comes to the theater and is infatuated with Ros. When German planes discharge their bombs over the theater, the audience and performers take refuge in the building's basement, and there Paul meets Ros and invites her to dinner. Ros refuses his invitation, but after the raid, she and Judy stop by the neighborhood restaurant, and Paul is waiting with champagne. Ros begins to date Paul, but when he tricks her into coming to his apartment by promising to introduce her to a non-existent soldier from her home town of St. Louis, she feels betrayed and refuses to talk to him.
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Wikipedia