With a Song in My Heart (B or 3/4 stars)
'With a Song in My Heart', directed by Walter Green, is a sweetly sentimental biographical musical drama centering on the ups & downs of singer Jane Froman (played wonderfully by Susan Hayward). After nabbing an all-important radio gig, young Jane marries her music accompanist, Don Ross (David Wayne, stellar). Under his management, even as her career booms, their marriage starts to fail. That dire matter takes a back seat, however, to the bright news that she is invited to sing for the troops during WWII. But her plans to entertain them are tragically halted when her plane goes down in a terrible crash in Lisbon, Portugal in 1943.
The narrative concentrates on what follows after the accident {where only 15 of the 39 passengers survived}, as she remains partly crippled and, eventually needing crutches to ambulate. In the meanwhile, her life is ever more complicated by a romance she embarks on with John Burn (Rory Calhoun), a kindly, wounded military pilot. In the end, despite her disability, she still manages to entertain Allied troops in WWII. And in a deviation from what occurs in real life, the film shows that she stays with her husband Don, though, in real life she goes on to marry the pilot who rescues her.
This rousing tribute to Jane Froman was a big box office success; with audiences forgiving that plenty of 'facts' in the film aren't all that accurate. Susan Hayward is sensational in the Lead role; giving what, I think, should have won the Academy Award for Best Actress to nudge out Shirley Booth in Come Back, Little Sheba. Hayward was a 'grand' actress in every sense of the word. She went 'big'. But that works, here. I felt everything Hayward says & does and, her lip-synching & body movements to the real Jane Froman are expertly executed. Hayward embodies Froman entirely.
David Wayne is excellent as her husband, Don. Rory Calhoun's John makes her understand why Jane would want to leave Don for him. Thelma Ritter is fantastic - when isn't she? - as Clancy, her wisecracking nurse. Robert Wagner & Una Merkel impress in smaller roles. The musical numbers are great, with performances of "Get Happy" {Hayward rivets in a red dress}, "Blue Moon", "Embraceable You", "California Here I Come" {loved this one!}, not to mention the title track "With a Song in My Heart". Leon Shamroy's Technicolor photography & Alfred Newman's score are laudable. And while the overall vibe of this movie is tear-jerking schmaltz to a fault, I couldn't find fault in Hayward or in the film's stirring salute to our troops & America.
The narrative concentrates on what follows after the accident {where only 15 of the 39 passengers survived}, as she remains partly crippled and, eventually needing crutches to ambulate. In the meanwhile, her life is ever more complicated by a romance she embarks on with John Burn (Rory Calhoun), a kindly, wounded military pilot. In the end, despite her disability, she still manages to entertain Allied troops in WWII. And in a deviation from what occurs in real life, the film shows that she stays with her husband Don, though, in real life she goes on to marry the pilot who rescues her.
This rousing tribute to Jane Froman was a big box office success; with audiences forgiving that plenty of 'facts' in the film aren't all that accurate. Susan Hayward is sensational in the Lead role; giving what, I think, should have won the Academy Award for Best Actress to nudge out Shirley Booth in Come Back, Little Sheba. Hayward was a 'grand' actress in every sense of the word. She went 'big'. But that works, here. I felt everything Hayward says & does and, her lip-synching & body movements to the real Jane Froman are expertly executed. Hayward embodies Froman entirely.
David Wayne is excellent as her husband, Don. Rory Calhoun's John makes her understand why Jane would want to leave Don for him. Thelma Ritter is fantastic - when isn't she? - as Clancy, her wisecracking nurse. Robert Wagner & Una Merkel impress in smaller roles. The musical numbers are great, with performances of "Get Happy" {Hayward rivets in a red dress}, "Blue Moon", "Embraceable You", "California Here I Come" {loved this one!}, not to mention the title track "With a Song in My Heart". Leon Shamroy's Technicolor photography & Alfred Newman's score are laudable. And while the overall vibe of this movie is tear-jerking schmaltz to a fault, I couldn't find fault in Hayward or in the film's stirring salute to our troops & America.