JohnHowardReid Musical direction: Lennie Hayton. Orchestrations: Conrad Salinger. Uncredited orchestrator: Roger Edens. Vocal arrangements: Kay Thompson Musical numbers staged and directed by Robert Alton. An MGM picture, copyright 4 December 1946 by Loew's Inc. MGM production number: 1369. Shooting over approx. 5 months from 8 October 1945 to 23 May 1946. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 5 December 1946. U.S. release: 3 January 1947. Australian release: 27 May 1947. Copyright length: 120 minutes. U.S. release length: 137 minutes. Australian length: 12,586 feet. 140 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Jerome Kern searches for the daughter of an old friend, eventually finding her as the star of a Hollywood musical based on his life.NOTES: Negative cost: $2,841,608. Domestic gross $6¾ million. Preview date: 2 July 1946.COMMENT: The songs are great - no doubt about that. And we're not going to cavil about their singing either (except to mention that MGM 's typically abrasive sound doesn't treat Miss Grayson kindly). And few could complain about the vigorous and beguiling staging (even if some of the color tones are garish and over-synthetic). But that story - that concoction of tired clichés laced with the dullest dialogue this side of an election manifesto - and so boringly told by those masters of tedium, Robert Walker and Van Heflin - that impossibly vapid and excruciatingly wearisome story is something else again! This movie just aches for the film editor's shears. True, Harry Stradling has tried to dress it up a bit with occasionally atmospheric lighting (for example, the red neon flashing on and off in the exchange between Kern and Victor Herbert), but his efforts are wasted on such a determinedly colorless script.Kern's real life was supposedly too uneventful - just one smash musical hit after another - MGM couldn't resist jazzing it up with the usual stock characters such as the devoted music teacher friend (a figure also included in Rhapsody In Blue, but at least drawn there with a bit more interest), the admiring wife, friend's adoring daughter and assorted obsequious producers, chauffeurs, colleagues and stars. Bah!Aside from Hammerstein (who wrote his own scenes and approved of the casting of Paul Langton), the script also follows Hollywood's usual convention of assuming that its idol wrote lyrics as well as music. In fact, we are actually shown Kern effortlessly cudgeling his brains for the words to "They Didn't Believe Me" - no mention whatever of Herbert Reynolds.If we could throw away the story and just keep the music, the film is great - from its potted Act One "Showboat" to its platformed Finale with a pink-suited Sinatra effectively reprising "Ol' Man River". In between are such delectables as Van Johnson's surprisingly agile "I Won't Dance", Allyson's delightfully witty "Cleopatterer", and Garland's magic "Look for the Silver Lining" and vivacious "Who?" (Of course, this is really only to be expected - Minnelli, Alton and even Sidney are far more sprightly directors than the dull, ploddingly pedestrian Richard Whorf.)As for the actors in the straight "story" - Walker, Heflin, Bremer, Patrick, Langton and company - we will do them the kindness of assuming their earnest efforts were thwarted by script and director.

foxwhowood It's supposed to be a biography of composer Jerome Kern, but this is really a musical revue. As such it's pretty good, but it's way too long. Kern wrote as LOT of music. Trying to sandwich in all the good tunes creates an endless succession of songs sung by an endless list of stars. Some of the performances are quite good, but the problem is the quantity, not the quality.The movie starts with a baffling misstep. Before the story even begins we're dumped cold into a recreation of highlights from Kern's biggest stage hit, "Show Boat." Though it's well done, the sequence is so long (18 minutes, I'm told) that had I been watching in a theater I'd have wondered if the projectionist had accidentally switched reels.When the story does get going it proves not worth waiting for. Having read a capsule review before seeing the film, I was prepared not to "take the biography too seriously." I wasn't prepared for a story that's 90% hogwash. The movie's central relationship, a lifelong friendship between Kern and mentor/arranger, James Hessler, is entirely fraudulent. The man never existed. Of course neither did Hessler's stagestruck daughter Sally, who grows up to feature in an annoying subplot. A few details are accidentally accurate. Mostly it's just a Hollywood screenplay, and not a very good one. The plot is hackneyed and choppy. The dialogue is often embarrassing.Robert Walker and Van Heflin sink with the script. Neither shows his real talent. Both are awkward and stiff. Maybe that's why the characters seem have an intense bromance going. I think the intent was to present a close, lasting friendship. But despite marrying the "love of his life," the screen Kern devotes more time and genuine emotion to Hessler than he ever does to his wife. I confess I had a hard time judging Walker fairly. In my head I identify him so closely to Bruno Antony in "Strangers on a Train" that I kept waiting for Kern to ask Hessler to murder his wife for him.The fact that both Walker and Heflin are young and handsome makes the going rough as the men age. The movie's old-age makeup comes straight from a high school play. In Heflin's case it consists mostly of covering his hair with increasingly thick applications of Christmas tree flocking. On his deathbed Heflin still looks young and hearty.Granting this picture is all hokum, I'd have liked to have seen SOME attention paid to history. When Kern's early impresario Charles Frohman goes down on the Lusitania, it's presented as an isolated incident. World War One apparently never happened.More significantly, Kern wrote melodies. He did not write lyrics. He enjoyed long working relationships with several major lyricists, and never claimed credit for their words. The movie suggests repeatedly that Kern wrote both words and music. In the movie Oscar Hammerstein, his most important collaborator, drops in to console a grieving Kern. He seems to be just another friend. No hint is given that this is the man who wrote the lyrics for "Show Boat," including the unforgettable "Old Man River." The omission may simplify the story, but it does a disservice to those whose lyrics played just as important a role as Kern's melodies in creating enduring songs.

JLRMovieReviews Robert Walker is composer Jerome Kern is this MGM musical, where the real star are the musical numbers featuring stars like Judy Garland, Lena Horne, June Allyson, Tony Martin, Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury and Kathryn Grayson. The actual plot of young "Jerry" starting his career and finding love was more interesting than I had expected. I had not seen this in years and did not have any memory of it to speak of. But of course it's the music that you'll love the best here. The upbeat songs are very perky and the more serious songs are very moving and beautiful. One particular highlight is Judy washing dishes and singing "Look for the Silver Lining." You've never really heard that song until you've heard Judy Garland sing it. Frank Sinatra sings "Old Man River," but, while somewhat dramatic, I don't think his voice is suited for that song. But I do have some major criticisms about the film: Robert Walker's performance as the elder Kern left a lot to be desired. The less said the better. Because of an unnecessary overly dramatic subplot of Lucille Bremer being mad of being slighted in a musical show, the second half drags and the film felt way too long. Frankly it was very hard to get through, except for the musical numbers of course. This is the kind of movie to watch about every 5-7 years for the musical numbers, which was why I watched this. I thought about making this a '7', but due to Walker's wooden performance as the elder Kern and an unbearable second hour, this is yet another MGM musical whose parts are better than the whole.

museumofdave During the period of the late 1940's and 50's, Hollywood decide to treat the public to musical biopics, and because of censorship difficulties, demands from living relatives and ethnic considerations, most of them--whether dealing with Larry Hart, George Gershwin, Cole Porter or in this case, Jerome Kern, were whitewashed and innocuous life stories, skirting life episodes that might have given the films some genuine punch.While there are enough well-staged MGM candy-colored musical treats to keep this biopic afloat, this odd and frequently dull postwar musical features a dreadfully miscast (but popular in 1946) Robert Walker as the tunesmith Kern (Walker was also stuck in another film as Johannes Brahms);the fine actor Van Heflin acts as Kern's mentor (a person who never existed in real life) and there is far too much repetitive dialogue between the two men used to pad out the 137 minute running time.Definitely worth watching are Judy Garland (in brilliant joyous numbers staged by her husband at the time, Vincent Minnelli), June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, and other major singing stars in tiny cameos--a word of warning about the film print quality: years ago, someone at MGM forgot to renew the copyright, and this film drifted into public domain; many mediocre copies were produced with bad sound and poor color, usually included in bargain collections or close-out stores for a buck. There is now an official studio copy available, and because the Technicolor is such an important part of the film's impact, it is recommended you avoid the cheapies and get the real thing--and gape in wonder as a very young Frank Sinatra, clad in white tuxedo, standing alone on a giant white mountain of a column, sings "Old Man River." The mind boggles!