I own both a VHS and a DVD copy of this film, and oddly enough, the VHS tape yields a clearer, more colorful picture! Go figure. The film is a wonderful study, not of a biography proper (it's often reported that the script was highly fictionalized), but of a top-flight execution of a musical. And if you're any kind of musical aficionado (and over 40), you'll enjoy the innovative ways this film stuffs so many stars into one motion picture: from Judy Garland as real-life Kern star Marilyn Miller (wistful in the dish-hidden ballad "Look For the Silver Lining"), to the various stage pieces featuring Angela Lansbury (sexily fronting colorful showgirls on swings), Ray McDonald and June Allyson (lovely in a rain-soaked tap-dance sequence), Tony Martin, Kathryn Grayson, Lucille Bremer, Van Johnson, and a BRUNETTE Dinah Shore singing "They Wouldn't Believe Me" and The Last Time I Saw Paris." And five of the singers- Grayson, Martin, Virginia O'Brien, Lena Horne, and Caleb Peterson- are magnificent in a mini-production of "Show Boat." (Horne, of course, was performing the role of torch singer Julie and was approached by the writers themselves to perform in a stage revival of the show- possibly making history as the first ever light-skinned woman of color to play a fictional light-skinned woman of color-- but could not, due to her contract with MGM. Since she never got the actual film of SHOW BOAT either, this 3 minutes of her essaying "Can't Help Lovin' That Man," in a lavender gown with tears in her eyes, makes one wonder what might have been.) Also sleek is Gower Champion (not yet teamed with wife Marge) dancing "Smoke Gets In your Eyes" with Cyd Charisse for about 45 seconds. Blink and you'll miss Esther Williams signing autographs at a train station.
Review of Till the Clouds Roll By
