This Is the Night
(1932)
75,78 or 80 mins | Comedy | 8 April 1932
Director:
Frank TuttleWriters:
George Marion, Benjamin GlazerCinematographer:
Victor MilnerProduction Company:
Paramount Publix Corp.The copyright catalog lists Pouche as an alternate title for this film. The working titles for the film were He Met a French Girl and Temporary Fiancée. A contemporary source credits Duke Ellington and His Band and George Dewey Washington as performers in Folies de Paris, which frames the film's story. Credits to this film roll as the orchestra warms up and plays the overture to Folies de Paris, and the film ends with the maestro finishing and then closing the score. According files in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the Hays Office objected to the opening scene in which Claire loses her dress. Quoting the script [in italics] in a letter to B. P. Schulberg, Chief Studio Executive at Paramount, on 7 Jan 1932, Colonel Jason S. Joy, the Director of the Studio Relations Office of the AMPP, stated: "Not only does Claire lose the dress, but she reveals a vista of legs and thighs about the kness." Joy continues: "When Claire's coat flies open and Gerald looks down on a "vista" afforded by the open coat, he gasps--with a great intake of breath. The supposition is that he has seen a great deal." On 16 Sep 1935, Paramount requested a Code seal for a re-issue of this film from the PCA; the seal was given after Paramount deleted a scene in which Germaine undresses behind a screen and throws her clothes over the top of it. Following a complaint from the Italian ambassador, Paramount reportedly cut two or three shots of comical characterizations of the ...
The copyright catalog lists Pouche as an alternate title for this film. The working titles for the film were He Met a French Girl and Temporary Fiancée. A contemporary source credits Duke Ellington and His Band and George Dewey Washington as performers in Folies de Paris, which frames the film's story. Credits to this film roll as the orchestra warms up and plays the overture to Folies de Paris, and the film ends with the maestro finishing and then closing the score. According files in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the Hays Office objected to the opening scene in which Claire loses her dress. Quoting the script [in italics] in a letter to B. P. Schulberg, Chief Studio Executive at Paramount, on 7 Jan 1932, Colonel Jason S. Joy, the Director of the Studio Relations Office of the AMPP, stated: "Not only does Claire lose the dress, but she reveals a vista of legs and thighs about the kness." Joy continues: "When Claire's coat flies open and Gerald looks down on a "vista" afforded by the open coat, he gasps--with a great intake of breath. The supposition is that he has seen a great deal." On 16 Sep 1935, Paramount requested a Code seal for a re-issue of this film from the PCA; the seal was given after Paramount deleted a scene in which Germaine undresses behind a screen and throws her clothes over the top of it. Following a complaint from the Italian ambassador, Paramount reportedly cut two or three shots of comical characterizations of the Italian police. According to a news item in the NYT, French aviator Joe Lefert worked in a scene with Lily Damita. Leffert reportedly was chief aviation instructor for General Chang Tao-lin in Manchuria in 1921. In a script dated 13 Jan 1932, Benjamin Glazer is listed as associate producer. This was the first film in which Cary Grant had a starring role. FD called Grant a "former stage favorite," and the Var review stated that Grant looked "like a potential femme rave." NYT called Grant's character "Stepan Mendanich." Although Gerald's valet is both referred to in the film and credited as "Sparks," numerous reviews call him "Jacques," the name of Gerald's valet in the play. In 1926, Famous Players-Lasky made a film based on the play Naughty Cinderella called Good and Naughty, directed by Malcolm St. Clair and starring Pola Negri and Tom Moore (see entry).
Pouche
Temporary Fiancée
While on the way to the theater in Paris with her lover, Gerald Gray, Claire Mathewson loses her skirt in a limousine door to the delight of the crowd in the street. Arriving home in her slip, Claire is met by her husband Stephen, a javelin thrower supposed to be in Los Angeles for the Olympics, who has just discovered that Claire is planning a rendezvous in Venice. Caught in their lie, Gerald and Claire insist the trip was for two couples and Gerald sets out to find himself a wife. He hires the starving and respectable Germaine, believing that she is Chou-Chou, a sophisticated and glamorous actress. Once in Venice, Germaine and Gerald make love at breakfast and Claire becomes jealous, demanding that the actress leave Venice. Germaine, however, refuses to relinquish her fantasy of a romantic, extravagant Venetian vacation. Meanwhile, Stephen spends the afternoon with "Mrs. Gray" while Gerald and his friend Bunny get drunk, both believing they love the actress. That night, Bunny arrives drunk to take Germaine out in a gondola and Gerald intervenes, ordering Germaine to stay home. Then, as a gondolier sings in the moonlight, Gerald kisses her, but Germaine, tired of the façade, runs to her room, where she cries that she is not spectacular like Chou-Chou, but is respectable and wants only to be herself. Meanwhile, Claire, jealous of the actress' attentions toward Stephen, goes to Gerald's room to make sure Chou-Chou has left town, and Gerald tells his mistress she has fallen back in love with her husband. Bunny then falls off Germaine's balcony into the canal and Stephen, thinking that he is a prowler, rushes ...
While on the way to the theater in Paris with her lover, Gerald Gray, Claire Mathewson loses her skirt in a limousine door to the delight of the crowd in the street. Arriving home in her slip, Claire is met by her husband Stephen, a javelin thrower supposed to be in Los Angeles for the Olympics, who has just discovered that Claire is planning a rendezvous in Venice. Caught in their lie, Gerald and Claire insist the trip was for two couples and Gerald sets out to find himself a wife. He hires the starving and respectable Germaine, believing that she is Chou-Chou, a sophisticated and glamorous actress. Once in Venice, Germaine and Gerald make love at breakfast and Claire becomes jealous, demanding that the actress leave Venice. Germaine, however, refuses to relinquish her fantasy of a romantic, extravagant Venetian vacation. Meanwhile, Stephen spends the afternoon with "Mrs. Gray" while Gerald and his friend Bunny get drunk, both believing they love the actress. That night, Bunny arrives drunk to take Germaine out in a gondola and Gerald intervenes, ordering Germaine to stay home. Then, as a gondolier sings in the moonlight, Gerald kisses her, but Germaine, tired of the façade, runs to her room, where she cries that she is not spectacular like Chou-Chou, but is respectable and wants only to be herself. Meanwhile, Claire, jealous of the actress' attentions toward Stephen, goes to Gerald's room to make sure Chou-Chou has left town, and Gerald tells his mistress she has fallen back in love with her husband. Bunny then falls off Germaine's balcony into the canal and Stephen, thinking that he is a prowler, rushes in to save Germaine. Claire and Gerald, finding Stephen in Germaine's room, fly into a rage, believing the actress is living up to Chou-Chou's bad reputation. Gerald then admits Germaine is not his wife, and Stephen admits he knew all along. When the police arrive with the soaked Bunny, Stephen is cleared of Claire's suspicion and they are reconciled. While Germaine leaves the hotel in a gondola, Bunny tells Gerald that Germaine replaced Chou-Chou, and Gerald runs after Germaine. As the gondolier sings, Gerald proposes to Germaine in the moonlight.
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