 | It has its moments, but on balance the movie seems to be over-produced when people are singing and dull when they aren't
rating: 3
What an odd insect-in-amber musical Till the Clouds Roll By, a somewhat biographical film about Jerome Kern, now seems. It freezes in time all the weaknesses and some of the strengths of an MGM musical style that has long passed from the scene. Kern was one of the giants of American song-writing. It's no exaggeration to say that he was the great bridge between the European operetta style of early Broadway musicals and the completely home- grown and energetic style which came from Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin and Porter. His and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat in 1927 was a turning point in American theater history. Fittingly enough, the movie opens with an 18-minute series of song-and-dance excerpts from Show Boat. It's the best thing about the movie. From there on, we're in for a series of largely over-produced Kern production numbers featuring a list of MGM stars, interrupted by dull narrative, fictional key characters and some terribly corny dialogue.
"Look down at that city, Jerry," says Victor Herbert to Kern one night in New York after Kern has been shaken by the death of an important person in his life. "It's made up of millions of people," Herbert continues, "and music has played a part in all their lives...lullabies...love songs...hymns...anthems." Kern gazes down at the city. "Must be pretty wonderful, Mr. Herbert, to realize that people you don't even know and never will know are singing your songs, and all of them asking for more Victor Herbert music." "It makes me feel grateful, Jerry," Herbert says, "and very humble. One of these days you'll find out for yourself how it feels."
This is the kind of dialogue that tells you the writers don't think much of the audience. Unfortunately, and with the exception of Van Heflin in the fictional role of Kern's friend and mentor, the actors give, in my opinion, almost uniformly flat performances in handling the story line. Robert Walker, who has to carry the movie as Jerome Kern, comes across as so wise, understanding and dignified that it's too easy to lose sight of a talented actor. Walker excelled at playing charming, almost innocent and often amusingly subversive young men. Later, he showed he could play charming and not-so-innocent psychopaths. Here, the role gives him no room or air. It's difficult to believe he didn't break out laughing after shooting some of his scenes.
The movie features at least 20 production numbers, ranging from that 18-minute Show Boat excerpt to snippets of Kern's songs. The numbers, for me, are at their best when they are presented more-or-less directly without all those MGM production values. Lena Horne is terrific singing "Why Was I Born?" Lucille Bremer and Van Johnson have fun with a nightclub number of "I Won't Dance." Ray MacDonald and June Allyson do nice jobs with "Till the Clouds Roll By," "Leave It to Jane" and "Cleopaterer." Angela Lansbury is saucy and smooth doing a Cockney number. Judy Garland playing Marilyn Miller has two major numbers, both directed by her then-husband, Vincente Minnelli, which are so glossy and powerful they almost bring the movie to a halt. But we also have to endure Kathryn Grayson with her shrill vibrato, Tony Martin, a hugely skilled singer but, in my view, mannered and self-aware, and Gower Champion, looking frozen and almost grim as he dances with Cyd Charisse. In between these extremes are a variety of other numbers, most of which are worth watching.
Kern died before the movie was completed so Arthur Freed and company shot a kind of tribute to Kern to close the movie. Many of the stars who had appeared earlier in the film shot parts of Kern's songs that he wrote after Show Boat. Freed put these together in a sort of staged medley. The sequence seems awkward to me. Everyone is dressed in white. The male singers and dancers wear red bow ties with their white tuxes. The set is a kind of white wedding-cake tower that floats. The sequence and the movie ends with a skinny young Frank Sinatra in a white tux standing on a white pillar in front of a white-garbed orchestra singing "Ol' Man River."
Till the Clouds Roll By has some virtues, but on balance it suffers greatly from two things. The narrative story-line is far too reverential and cloying. Second, as with all the other filmed musical biographies of the great American songwriters -- such as Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin and Cole Porter -- great chunks of the story are false. How good it would have been if the studios had trusted the audience enough to eliminate the false drama in these biographies and used the time to put in more examples of the composers' great songs.
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Only Make-Believe
rating: 3
Movie musicals were guaranteed box-office during the golden age of Hollywood, but they often had trouble figuring ways to squeeze as many song hits as they could into a show, so the studios started doing all-star biographies to the great composers of the American songbook. Usually the stories were ridiculous and invented (since the composers were either living or their songs were still held in copyright by their surviving relatives), but you could often bet on a real show-stopper or two in every one of them: Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen dancing to "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" in the Rodgers and Hart biopic WORDS AND MUSIC for example, or Arlene Dahl's unforgettable "I Love You So Much" in THREE LITTLE WORDS. TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY, MGM's salute to Jerome Kern, is one of the most opulent in this genre, and also one of the silliest. The real Kern insisted his life had almost no incident in it (he grew up in a well-to-do family, had a very solid musical education, and adored his wife) so the studio had to invent conflict by inventing for Kern (here played by Robert Walker) an arranger and friend and taskmaster; since this latter character is wholly imaginary, the studio had the inspired idea of casting Van Heflin in the part who looks very much like Walker (and thus could convincingly be his alter ego). But the story is as dull as dishwater, involving Heflin's daughter (Lucille Bremer) becoming stagestruck.
The thing to do, of course, is to skip right through to the musical numbers, and though they're not as memorable as they could be (they're often undercut by the wondrously kitschy sets and stagings), they're for the most part beautifully sung. Judy Garland plays the great 20s star Marilyn Miller and gets to sing "Who?" in lovely voice on what seems to be a magic escalator; Lena Horne gets to play Julie Laverne in SHOW BOAT (something she was denied the opportunity of doing in the three film versions of that show) and sing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"; Dinah Shore sings "The Last Time I saw Paris" and, more memorably, "They Didn't Believe Me." The high point, oddly enough, is June Allyson spunkily singing the title number of LEAVE IT TO JANE with a full chorus. Kern's songs are probably the most musically sophisticated of all the great American songbook composers, so even just getting to hear them sung well is a treat, though the kitschiness is a bit over the top. Since Kern died during the making of the film the studio decided to cinch the hagiographic aspects of the show by creating a framing narrative set in heaven with Kern looking on; by the end of the film his numbers are all performed in the celestial sphere, with the performers wearing all-white formal wear standing on giant fluted columns that look like Italian wedding cakes.
This DVD went out of copyright, so be prepared that the variant versions differ greatly with regard to sound and picture quality. The one I viewed was the "official" version from warner Video, and includes a lovely extra of Kathryn Grayson and Johnny Johnston performing two of the most sumptuous songs Kern ever wrote from his operetta MUSIC IN THE AIR, "Ev'ry Little Star" and "The Song is You." Although Grayson has been much hated by later audiences for her sugary trilling (in full evidence, sadly, at the end of "The Song is You"), and she wears the silliest white lace mantilla you've ever seen (it looks like a square doily), she gets to show with her tender rendition of the intro and main verse of "Ev'ry Little Star" something of why audiences liked her so much in the Forties and early Fifties.
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Doesn't work on my computer
rating: 1
I tried this download when the Unbox promotions started. I couldn't get it to play. I think my computer is just not powerful enough. I had a 1 gig MHz business machine with a lousy video card. I've recently swapped computers here in my living room and have not tried it again. I'd have to download the Unbox software again. If you don't have at least a 2 gig MHz machine with a great Video Card, I wouldn't bother with Unbox if I were you. Fun Idea, but only for the more advanced computer folks out there. Now I keep getting download advertisements in e-mail from Amazon. Sure wish I could shut them off somehow...
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The Warner Remastered Edition is the only one to get
rating: 2
Amazon lists some 30-odd different releases of Till the Clouds Roll By, but the newly remastered edition from Warner Home Video (ASIN: B000EBD9SA) is the only version worth buying. The cliche that you get what you pay for is definitely true in this case; all other editions available, including this one, are ripped from public domain prints of the film, with greatly varying quality in both video and audio.
As other reviewers have pointed out, the 'biopic' story is one of the hokiest that Hollywood ever committed to screen, bearing little resemblance to the life of the real Jerome Kern -- but the great songs just keep coming, and coming.
And the Warner remaster is filled with important extras that you won't want to miss.
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GREAT MUSICAL - LOTS OF OLD MEMORIES
rating: 5
Wonderful memories from the past in this DVD. Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, and the music of Jerome Kern. What could be better? Wish they wrote songs like this now AND also have movies like this now! Great addition to anyone's collection.
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