"This is the Night" reminded me of another movie I watched titled "Sin Takes a Holiday" (1930). In "Sin Takes a Holiday" a rich playboy paid a woman to marry him--which would only be a marriage on paper--so that he wouldn't have to settle down with another woman. Eventually he fell in love with his paper wife.
In "This is the Night" a stammering, meek, middle-aged man named Gerald (Roland Young) was seeing a younger married woman named Claire (Thelma Todd). They planned a getaway to Venice, Italy when their plans were upset by Claire's husband, Stephen (Cary Grant). To avert Stephen's suspicions, Gerald had to say that he was already married, when he certainly wasn't.
Stephen had intercepted two train tickets for Claire and Gerald that Gerald was forced to claim were for he and his own (non-existent) wife. To complete the charade, Gerald hired French actress, Chu Chu (pronounced shoo shoo) (Lili Damita), to play his wife while they all went to Venice together.
"This is the Night" hovered between good and average. It began as though it was going to be a musical and then pivoted off of that, which I appreciated. I think what prevented it from realizing its full potential was the leading man, Roland Young. His meek, uncertain, wishy-washy personality made him nearly contemptible. I wanted to root for him to fall in love with the beautiful and charismatic Chu Chu aka Germaine, but his behavior kept making me want to flick him off of my screen as though he were a bug. He was by far the weakest character.
As for a debut film for Cary Grant, it could've been worse. His character, while important, didn't drive the movie. It was all about Claire, Gerald, and the show stopper Chu Chu.
In "This is the Night" a stammering, meek, middle-aged man named Gerald (Roland Young) was seeing a younger married woman named Claire (Thelma Todd). They planned a getaway to Venice, Italy when their plans were upset by Claire's husband, Stephen (Cary Grant). To avert Stephen's suspicions, Gerald had to say that he was already married, when he certainly wasn't.
Stephen had intercepted two train tickets for Claire and Gerald that Gerald was forced to claim were for he and his own (non-existent) wife. To complete the charade, Gerald hired French actress, Chu Chu (pronounced shoo shoo) (Lili Damita), to play his wife while they all went to Venice together.
"This is the Night" hovered between good and average. It began as though it was going to be a musical and then pivoted off of that, which I appreciated. I think what prevented it from realizing its full potential was the leading man, Roland Young. His meek, uncertain, wishy-washy personality made him nearly contemptible. I wanted to root for him to fall in love with the beautiful and charismatic Chu Chu aka Germaine, but his behavior kept making me want to flick him off of my screen as though he were a bug. He was by far the weakest character.
As for a debut film for Cary Grant, it could've been worse. His character, while important, didn't drive the movie. It was all about Claire, Gerald, and the show stopper Chu Chu.