Before I get to the film itself, I want to stand on my soapbox for a moment. I have always hated it when Hollywood played fast and loose with facts in order to create a good story. In other words, when "true stories" turn out to be mostly schmaltz and fiction, the history teacher within me goes bananas! Some good examples are NIGHT AND DAY (which bears little semblance to the life of Cole Porter) and POCAHONTAS (which is so chock full of errors I don't even know where to start!). While the films are entertaining, they teach bad history and over-glamorize people--turning them into caricatures of themselves.
Because THE EDDY DUCHIN STORY is essentially a work of fiction, I couldn't get that excited about the movie. It was sort of like the opposite of Joe Friday's old motto "The story you are about to see is true, only the names were changed to protect the innocent". Here, however, the names are the same but everything else, to a degree, has been changed. Sadly, when I searched the web for more information about the real life Duchin, I was usually referred to this film--though most sources also said that the film is a fictionalized account!
Now, as a work of fiction, the film has its pluses and minuses. First let's talk about the good. I really liked the music--even though I generally don't care all that much for music of this era. Older big band songs were set to a style that were somewhat like subdued Liberace arrangements--but without THAT much improvisation. The acting was also very good and Power's performance had a bit more depth than usual plus he did a good job of pretending to play the piano well. Also, some of the schmaltz worked well--particularly at the end. Now for what was bad. The film all too often was filled with overly sentimental hooey. The death scene with his first wife (played by Kim Novak) was silly. The woman is supposed to be dying following giving birth, but she looks just fine. I am almost surprised that they didn't have the sky open up when she died--in a scene reminiscent of a Biblical epic. It was simply WAAAYY overdone. Also, all the foreshadowing leading up to it (with the silly talk about storms) was just silly and telegraphed the action way too much. Also, while I did like the music, I also thought that several of the songs could have been cut to speed up the action a bit.
So, if you like schmaltzy tear-jerkers NOT based on reality, try watching the film...or THE SOUND OF MUSIC (which, I must admit, I still love despite its many, many liberties with the truth) or any one of a number of other very entertaining but historically silly films. As for me, I'd much rather see a film based on the real Duchin--that would have been much more satisfying in the end.
Because THE EDDY DUCHIN STORY is essentially a work of fiction, I couldn't get that excited about the movie. It was sort of like the opposite of Joe Friday's old motto "The story you are about to see is true, only the names were changed to protect the innocent". Here, however, the names are the same but everything else, to a degree, has been changed. Sadly, when I searched the web for more information about the real life Duchin, I was usually referred to this film--though most sources also said that the film is a fictionalized account!
Now, as a work of fiction, the film has its pluses and minuses. First let's talk about the good. I really liked the music--even though I generally don't care all that much for music of this era. Older big band songs were set to a style that were somewhat like subdued Liberace arrangements--but without THAT much improvisation. The acting was also very good and Power's performance had a bit more depth than usual plus he did a good job of pretending to play the piano well. Also, some of the schmaltz worked well--particularly at the end. Now for what was bad. The film all too often was filled with overly sentimental hooey. The death scene with his first wife (played by Kim Novak) was silly. The woman is supposed to be dying following giving birth, but she looks just fine. I am almost surprised that they didn't have the sky open up when she died--in a scene reminiscent of a Biblical epic. It was simply WAAAYY overdone. Also, all the foreshadowing leading up to it (with the silly talk about storms) was just silly and telegraphed the action way too much. Also, while I did like the music, I also thought that several of the songs could have been cut to speed up the action a bit.
So, if you like schmaltzy tear-jerkers NOT based on reality, try watching the film...or THE SOUND OF MUSIC (which, I must admit, I still love despite its many, many liberties with the truth) or any one of a number of other very entertaining but historically silly films. As for me, I'd much rather see a film based on the real Duchin--that would have been much more satisfying in the end.