From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Walter Lang
Starring
Susan Hayward
Rory Calhoun
David Wayne
Thelma Ritter
Robert Wagner
Richard Allan
Helen Westcott
Una Merkel
Max Showalter
Here is the story of popular 30s singer Jane Froman told in the biographical style of the time. That means some schmaltz, lots of color, a big roster of songs, finely performed and intelligently crafted. This was the type of film that 20th Century Fox knew how to deliver. To its utter credit it is as devoid of fiction as a movie bio is likely to be.
Whointhehell is Jane Froman? To be upfront, if it weren't for this movie, I would never have heard of her and outside of the film, I never have. But I did some reading yesterday. She was a big radio performer but also performed on stage, television and in a couple of movies. These things alone may not have warranted a movie biography. But there was that dramatic episode in her life that did move her story into bio country and we'll get to it.
The film was a rollicking success, a great deal of it attributed to the actress who was assigned to play Froman... Susan Hayward. Since coming to Fox in the late 40's, she was the queen of the lot and mostly got anything she wanted. Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters had both been considered to play Froman but when Hayward told the bosses that she wanted to do it, it was a done deal. Froman herself voted for Hayward and would be a technical adviser on the film. There was never any consideration that anyone other than Froman's singing voice would be used.
The story opens with Froman auditioning for a job at a Cincinnati radio station, a spot also sought by a vaudevillian comic and singer Don Ross (David Wayne). Not only does he not get the job but he helps her get it. He puts his career aside to manage hers and on her way to the top she marries him. It's apparent she doesn't love him but she does feel beholden.
There are several parts of this film that I am nuts about, two of which are musical numbers. The first is the waltz that Hayward and handsome Richard Allan perform while also singing the title tune, a song I have loved since the moment I saw this movie. This sequence is gorgeously filmed and choreographed.
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| Richard Allan |
If one likes to hear those old standards, this is the flick for you. So many of them are sung in the first third of the film. But then the light-heartedness changes when Don tells Jane that the U.S.O. wants her to fly to Europe to entertain the troops.
On the flight to Lisbon, Froman meets one of the pilots, John Burn (Rory Calhoun) who will become her second husband (though not in the time frame covered in the movie). Just before the plane is scheduled to land, Froman and another passenger switch seats. Then the plane's wing dips into the water causing a crash. That other passenger is killed and Froman is left crippled. She and Burn hold onto a wing in the water before being rescued and transferred to a hospital staying in side-by-side beds. During their lengthy convalescence they fall in love.
Froman is looked after by Clancy (Thelma Ritter), an American nurse now in residence at the Lisbon hospital who leaves her job to care for Froman back in the states. Ritter, ever the crafty scene-stealer, was perfect in her big scene where she takes Froman (lovingly) to task for not being gutsy enough and then leaving the room to cry.
Froman had scores of surgeries in her next few years, many of them to ward off the threat of amputation of her leg. She was successful in that matter but she remained crippled for life, unable to stand without crutches.
I am sure all of the leading actors have scenes with tears in their eyes (yeah, it's that kind of movie) but none as heartfelt as provided by Robert Wagner. He plays a shell-shocked soldier whom Froman brings on the stage and she sings his request I'll Walk Alone to him. He silently watches her as tears roll down his face. This scene always does me in. Wagner, by the way, was a last-minute addition and the studio was flummoxed over the amount of mail he received as a result of his appearance. It set him on the road to stardom.
Crippled or not, the decision is made for Froman to continue her career. It will, of course, not be an issue for her radio performances but it will for her various stage venues. They put her in all kinds of contraptions that allow her to stand (but not move) without crutches. At one point she stands on a platform with a piano and the platform itself moves across a nightclub floor. No one is trying to hide anything... the public is well aware of her condition.
She elects to return to Europe and entertain the troops, particularly those who are wounded and it is this fact that resonates so strongly... the wounded singer entertaining wounded soldiers and showing her mettle. I loved the scene toward the end of the movie, a rousing tribute to America with injured soldiers whooping and clapping as she belts out tunes denoting various parts of the country. If this long segment was designed to inspire, it worked for me.
The film ends as it begins with a concert performance of our lady singing the title tune and Clancy and John Burn smiling approvingly in the audience.
The film could have been structured in a different way for sure but studio go-to director Walter Lang elected to make it a musical biography and it is that as few others are. There are lots of tunes... some say too many. Too many of those 1930s/40s standards? Not for me. I've always thought it was such a damned sweet-natured film... that was their intention and that's what brought so many folks into the theater. Producer Lamar Trotti also wrote the screenplay and it was that screenplay that impressed Hayward and Froman as well.
I've read some other reviews that claimed this is Hayward's best performance and that is not so. That is not to say she isn't very good but then she always was. Hayward was first and foremost a dramatic actress and she doesn't get angry or fiery in the entire movie. Can you imagine?
She looks like a million bucks in the many gowns she wears. Costumer Charles Le Maire said they were the most expensive costumes he ever made for a leading lady. Oscar nominations went to LeMaire, Hayward, Ritter, for best sound and for Alfred Newman's musical score, the latter the only winner.
The rest of the performers also acquit themselves well with Ritter, of course, getting top honors.
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| Hayward with the real Jane Froman |
For me the chief complaint deals with Froman herself. Her vocal style never changes from song to song and the same can be said about her movements. Let's not forget she was on the set and coaching. On the other hand, I heartily applaud Hayward's expert lip-syncing.
Finally, there are several reasons why this film works for me. I love biographies, I love musicals and I bloody adore Susan Hayward. But perhaps more than anything, the film is simply a childhood favorite, made in the year I first really discovered movies. Some things never change.
Here's the trailer:
Next posting:
Visiting Film Noir
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