1h 42min | Drama, Romance, Music | 10 November 1947
Director: John Cromwell
Stars: Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon, Ethel Barrymore, Hoagy Carmichael, Artur Rubinstein.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039659/
Watched online, good print.
As you would expect from DA & MO, this is high romantic drama. I can't say much more without spoiling the plot.
EB is only around for maybe 20% of the screen time. HC gets much more visibility.
The star of the show, and it's not obvious from the start, is the composer of DA's Piano Concerto, Leith Stevens. From his IMDb Trivia:
As a film composer he was nothing if not versatile. His work ranged from the classical, Sergei Rachmaninoff-inspired "Piano Concerto in C Minor" (performed by Artur Rubinstein with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra) for Night Song (1947) to the swinging jazz scores he created for The Wild One (1953) and Private Hell 36 (1954).
In a recent post about Carnegie Hall (1947), 6+, I wrote:
I have sympathy for any composer who has to create something that follows all the true classical music in this film, and that composition is supposed to be worthy of a Carnegie Hall debut.
The situation was similar here (although this concerto didn't have to follow virtuoso performances of true classics), but here the composition measures up. I'm not saying it became a standard played by orchestras ever after, but as a first work, it fits.
Of course, another difference between the films: here Artur Rubinstein played the concerto; he could probably play Chop Sticks and make it sound brilliant. In the other film, Harry James was the soloist. No comparison in the classical realm.
So what about Leith Stevens (1909-70)? This was his 2nd of 57 credits as Movie Composer ('42-'68); including all job type, he had 127 film credits (same time span, with 2 posthumous). Very different film credentials than the composers of the concerto in the prior film.
RKO & John Cromwell Prod, dir. Cromwell; 7
