2h 3min | Biography, Drama, Music | 21 June 1956 | Color, WS
Director: George Sidney
Stars: Tyrone Power, Kim Novak, Victoria Shaw, James Whitmore.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049170/
I've seen TP in 7 musicals prior; nothing since '39. I don't remember if he played piano in one of those. Apparently he worked hard to get the fingering right, and it does look pretty good here.
KN is gone by the halfway mark. She looks different somehow, perhaps makeup?
TP (b. '14) looks older than his years, and he would die from a heart attack in '58. Per IMDb trivia, his heart attack was due to hereditary heart disease and heavy smoking: three to four packs of cigarettes a day, plus several bowlfuls of pipe tobacco.
This isn't a musical, but does have a fair amount of music played onscreen. The ending is very effective, although I did manage to steel myself to prevent tears. I remembered how they ended it, and that's because it manipulates us so well.
The film feels long at times, perhaps because TP takes such long pauses before responding in several scenes, perhaps because we don't get a lot of events or plot twists. And I'm commenting on the length after watching a lot of opera recently.
Columbia, dir. Sidney; 7
