Review of The Eddy Duchin Story

"The Eddy Duchin Story" shows us how Eddy Duchin (Tyrone Power) arrives in New York in the early '30s, trying to joins the Leo Reisman Orchestra. With a little help of Marjorie Oelrichs (Kim Novak) he finds a job with the band, playing the piano. Marjorie keeps supporting Eddy and before too long they fall in love. They get married and Eddy takes over the Reisman orchestra. He becomes the star of Manhattan's Central Park Casino and all seems a fairy tale... until Marjorie dies of peritonitis after giving birth to their son Peter. Eddy becomes a broken man, leaves the Casino and Peter behind to join the Navy during WW2. After the war he returns to Manhattan to find out he's just a stranger to his son Peter. The boy has build up a life without his father and it takes quite a while before he starts trusting and above all forgiving the man who left him behind… In the mean time Eddy meets Chiquita, a strong and independent woman who took care of Peter before Eddy showed up. After a short period of quarreling and disagreement over Peter's education, they start to appreciate each other. And before too long they fall in love. Eddy makes up with Peter and gets his name as the pianist of the Central Park Casino back on the highest level of fame. And then suddenly the end is near… Eddy starts getting pain in the hands. Playing the piano gets difficult. The doctors tell him he is dying from leukemia. And so Eddy has to prepare his loving son for a last farewell… In the final scene of the film Eddy and Peter play the piano together for the last time. As they perform "To love again", based on Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat, Eddy suffers a new hand-attack and symbolically leaves the piano, letting Peter take over the job… "The Eddy Duchin Story" is a wonderful biopic. Tyrone Power does a great job, especially when you realize it isn't really him playing the piano. But that is something you can only know after you are being told. He does his thing SO natural. In fact, he dubs the magical piano-sound of Carmen Cavallaro, the Poet of the Piano as he was once honored… If you search for a good classic movie, if you like piano and big band, a great love story and so much more, buy yourself the DVD. And yes, it's a crying shame that Columbia-Tristar (Sony) still hasn't released "The Eddy Duchin Story" on DVD in Europe. At this time it's available in the USA (region 1 – NTSC) and in Japan (region 2 - NTSC). "The Eddy Duchin Story" is my all-time favorite masterwork. I've enjoyed it a few dozen times and it still thrills me to tears…10/10!