Movie Biographies: The Great Caruso

1951 Musical Biography

From Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Directed by Richard Thorpe

Starring

Mario Lanza

Ann Blyth

Dorothy Kirsten

Jarmila Novotna

Richard Hageman

Carl Benton Reid

Eduard Franz

Ludwig Donath

Mario Lanza was born just a few months after Enrico Caruso died in 1921 and MGM's bad boy always felt a connection.  Myth-makers like to coo that Lanza inherited Caruso's voice.   As Lanza was growing up in Philadelphia and coming into his own as an operatic tenor, Caruso was his guiding light.  Lanza studied Caruso's voice and determined he would learn everything about him that he could.  It was some serious hero worship.

Flash forward a number of years and Lanza was a big, spoiled, over-privileged star at Hollywood's biggest, most spoiled and over-privileged studio.  In many ways it was a match made in heaven.  But as talented as Lanza was as a singer, he was a thorn in the side of MGM with his many dictates and temper tantrums.

By 1951 he had made two very popular movies at the studio, both with soprano Kathryn Grayson as his costar.  Through it all he kept begging MGM to do a film on the life of Caruso but not a lot was done about it, many citing Lanza's irritating behavior as the likely reason why.  Around the time he heard rumblings that a couple of writers might be working on a Caruso screenplay, he decided to get some manners, courtesy and respect and to curb his incessant tempestuousness.  The brass was smiling, Lanza was smiling and soon the world would be smiling.

While not complaining I find the film one big musical montage.  From song to song to song we learn of Caruso's passion to sing as we travel through his life, first in Naples, his hometown, to New York's Metropolitan Opera.  Initially his lack of education, background of poverty and squat physique make him an outcast in the high-class opera world.  But that voice, oh, that voice, changes everything... winning him the adoration of the public and the hand of his lady love.  

Lanza is nothing short of sensational.  Of course that voice was sent from the heavens but his acting is also the best of his short movie career.  His physique and personal mannerisms, according to a Caruso son, were on the mark.  Many folks over the years have said the film is as much about Lanza as it is Caruso.   I agree, not a complaint, but an observation.

Beautiful Ann Blyth is all she needs to be as Caruso's adoring wife, Dorothy.  Oddly, the only song written for the film was given to her to sing to Lanza while they're dancing.  The Loveliest Night of the Year was such a big hit that Blyth made a hit single and Lanza, no fool, ultimately made a recording of it, too.

  

He puts his impressive dramatic power to work in 23 arias, some sung with others, by such composers as Verdi, Puccini, Tosti, Rossini, Donezetti, De Curtis, d'Hardelot and Ponchielli, among others.  I have said before that I am not a great opera buff but Lanza's rendering of some of these arias gives me goosebumps.

My favorite Lanza song, Because, comes during one of my favorite scenes.  It begins when Caruso is making his first recording and it transitions into a scene where Blyth and a host of others are listening to it.  Lanza is off to the side listening to it while holding his baby and how they look and relate to one another, as actor and baby rather than characters, is incredibly touching.

Blyth was borrowed from Universal and so impressed MGM brass that she was signed to a contract when her other one expired.  When she came aboard The Great Caruso, the studio was worried that Lanza's penchant for bellowing curse words would be off-putting to the ladylike Blyth but all said he was the perfect gentleman with her and both reported they liked the other tremendously.

The film is populated with Metropolitan Opera stars.  Along with Dorothy Kirsten (who has a prominent supporting role) and Jarmila Novotna, there are Blanche Thebom, Teresa Celli, Nicola Moscona, Giuseppe Valdengo, Lucine Amara and Marina Koshetz. 

Director Richard Thorpe made over 185 movies and yet few people have heard of him.  He never acquired a famous name as some of his fellow directors had, was not an auteur, was not especially colorful.  Louis B. Mayer said he hired him as a company director because he had a quality the studio chief admired over all others for a director...  efficiency.  There were so many on this film who were also efficient and more than capable in their own areas... most especially those familiar with opera.  No reason to hire a big-name/expensive director for this one.

MGM spared no expense in bringing the film to the screen.  Art and set decoration is colorful and in the case of the opera house (stage, backstage, balconies, etc.) splendorous.  Three Oscar nominations would result with the only win going to best sound recording.

The real Enrico Caruso

Biography purists rightly carped that the film was largely fictional hokum, noting the lack of mention of Caruso's married mistress or their two sons (before his marriage) or the fact that he did not die on the stage as was depicted.  (He actually died at home from pleurisy and empyema at age 48.)  However, few took much note of it because Lanza's voice thrilled the masses which, in turn, made The Great Caruso the most financially successful film the world over for 1951.

It is considered Lanza's greatest film.  Enrico Caruso Jr. said later that he could think of no other tenor, before or after Mario Lanza, who could have risen with comparable success to the challenge of playing Caruso in a film biography.  It has also been claimed that vocally or musically the film has helped many young people discover opera and become singers themselves.  Among them are famed opera tenors Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.

Here's the trailer:

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