It's a long movie (over 130 minutes) but moved along fairly well and is one of those infrequent films where there are no villains and no nasty people. Sometimes that's refreshing. If you don't find it all that fascinating, you can always fast-forward through some of the songs you may not like.
What it is, simply-put, is a biography of Broadway pioneer Jerome Kern. Robert Walker does a fine job playing him and Van Heflin plays Kern's likable friend. The two guys never argue; they just help each other out. That's also nice to see and is rare in a film. The only person who acts badly is the grownup version of Heflin's little girl, played by Lucille Bremer and she gets scolded for her selfish temper tantrums and then turns for the good in the end.
Most review books and reviewers here just emphasize the singing talent in this film and the fact that so many of Kern's songs are performed by famous entertainers, but I liked the story better than the musical numbers, most of which I just found as "fair."
However, it was nice to see a young Dinah Shore, Angela Lansbury, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, among others. The talent in this movie is prestigious. The only thing missing was a great dancer, someone like Fred Astaire.
The first 19 minutes features a stage version of "Show Boat," and that, too, was just "fair." Then the story settles in and songs follow here and there. This is one of those 1940s Technicolor films so you know the colors and bright and impressive. When I wrote this there wasn't a good-quality DVD or tape of this, but apparently there is now. That's good news.
What it is, simply-put, is a biography of Broadway pioneer Jerome Kern. Robert Walker does a fine job playing him and Van Heflin plays Kern's likable friend. The two guys never argue; they just help each other out. That's also nice to see and is rare in a film. The only person who acts badly is the grownup version of Heflin's little girl, played by Lucille Bremer and she gets scolded for her selfish temper tantrums and then turns for the good in the end.
Most review books and reviewers here just emphasize the singing talent in this film and the fact that so many of Kern's songs are performed by famous entertainers, but I liked the story better than the musical numbers, most of which I just found as "fair."
However, it was nice to see a young Dinah Shore, Angela Lansbury, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, among others. The talent in this movie is prestigious. The only thing missing was a great dancer, someone like Fred Astaire.
The first 19 minutes features a stage version of "Show Boat," and that, too, was just "fair." Then the story settles in and songs follow here and there. This is one of those 1940s Technicolor films so you know the colors and bright and impressive. When I wrote this there wasn't a good-quality DVD or tape of this, but apparently there is now. That's good news.