Producer: Victor Saville. Songs by Sammy Cahn (lyrics) and Jule Styne (music): "You Excite Me" (Mears, danced by Hayworth, Cole and company); "Tonight and Every Night" (Blair, reprized Mears); "Anywhere" (Blair); "The Boy I Left Behind" (Mears, Blair); "Cry and You Cry Alone" (Mears, danced by Hayworth and Platt); "What Does an English Girl Think of a Yank?" (Mears). Music director: Morris Stoloff. Orchestral arrangements: Marlin Skiles. Vocal arrangements: Saul Chaplin. Dances staged by Jack Cole and Val Raset. Copyright 22 February 1945 by Columbia Pictures Corporation. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 8 March 1945 (ran two weeks). U.S. release: 22 February 1945. U.K. release: 21 May 1945. Australian release: 25 October 1945. 8,484 feet. 94 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Based on a real London revue theater, The Windmill, which never missed a single performance during the blitz, the fictitious screen story tells of a wartime romance between a showgirl and a flier. NOTES: "Anywhere" was nominated for Best Song, but lost to "It Might As Well Be Spring", a Rodgers and Hammerstein number from State Fair. Marlin Skiles and Morris Stoloff were nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture, losing to Georgie Stoll's Anchors Aweigh. Oddly, although Tonight and Every Night rates as one of the most beautifully photographed Technicolor films ever made, Rudolph Maté's absolutely superb cinematography (which he accomplished without the usual aid of a specialist cameraman from the Technicolor company) was not nominated at all.Film debut of Marc Platt. The character played by Florence Bates was modeled on the formidable real-life Sheila Van Damm.The original stage presentation produced by Gilbert Miller, opened on Broadway in February 1942. The cast featured Gertrude Musgrove, Beverly Roberts, Margot Grahame, Romney Brent, Richard Ainsley, Dennis Hoey and Lloyd Gough.COMMENT: Aside from the lilting "Anywhere" and the title tune, the songs form a most disappointing feature of this otherwise richly endowed musical entertainment. The costumes, the art direction, the dancing and the color cinematography are all nothing short of dazzling. The story maintains the interest more than adequately, the acting varies from spirited (Janet Blair, Marc Platt, Florence Bates) to engrossing (Rita Hayworth) to so-so (Lee Bowman). Direction rates as highly competent. Production values are mind-blowing.OTHER VIEWS: A truly lush production number, "You Excite Me", is probably Rita's all-time best staged and performed song. Another number from this film, "Cry and You Cry Alone", runs a close second. — Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth.

Rita Hayworth appeared in a "one-two punch" of Technicolor musicals during World War II, the first being "Cover Girl" and the second being "Tonight and Every Night." I'd give "Cover Girl" the edge on songs, as the standard from that film, "Long Ago and Far Away," was had lyrics by Ira Gershwin and the melody was given to Jerome Kern by Ira from his brother's box of unpublished songs at a pre-production meeting in 1943."Tonight and Every Night" is a tribute to the Windmill Theatre, a London fixture of the time that didn't close despite the air raids of the Blitz, the Baby Blitz, and the V1 and V2 raids of 1944-45. The Windmill started with non-stop vaudeville, which was copied, but with the coming of hostilities the management changed the format to tableaux and striptease featuring Phyllis Dixey (subject to a BBC series rebroadcast some years ago on PBS here in the States). Because of a puritanical streak in film-making of the period, stripping was out and general wholesome entertainment was in. A more accurate rendering of the events was released in 2005--"Mrs. Henderson Presents" starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. It showed how--and why--the programming at the Windmill evolved, and, like "Tonight and Every Night," loses some critical cast members through a direct air raid hit on a neighboring pub. Both films would make a GREAT double-feature!

This film is based on a real theater and theater troop during WWII. The theater never closed its doors despite the Blitz with bombs falling all around and over it. (It was an underground theater.) It's a part of England's history. This isn't the best film ever made, but certainly not the worst as some have made it out to be. It's simply a light musical mixed with drama. To see another take on this story be sure to see "Mrs. Henderson Presents" with Dame Judy Dench and Bob Hoskins. It's a fantastic film that really presents the way it was "back then." I know, because I was around then and this film brought back some good and some bad memories. DLMc

Rita Hayworth is an American performer during the blitz in "Tonight and Every Night." The film is based on the true story of a theater that kept going during the horrific bombings London suffered, unlike other theaters, which closed their doors. In the film, a photographer from Life arrives to do a feature about the theater and hears a story about Rita and friends from a stagehand.What a gorgeous woman and dancer Rita was, and what charisma! She sparkles on the screen and is stunningly beautiful in this Technicolor film. She looks like her magazine covers - perfect. Lee Bowman is her leading man, Janet Blair plays her best friend, and Marc Platt, a Broadway dancer who is an absolute dynamo, plays a fellow performer.There really isn't much to this script, except that there's a somewhat unexpected plot twist and the ending isn't as expected. We're looking in one direction while the script goes in another. There are some nifty production numbers and some pretty songs - better, I think, than those found in another Hayworth vehicle, Down to Earth.Rita's voice is always dubbed, but I wonder if she could sing or could have sung with some training. Guess we'll never know.Seeing Rita is always worth it.