Product Description

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/17/2009 Run time: 118 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28158 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2009-02-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

Features

• HELEN MORGAN STORY, THE WS (DVD MOVIE)

Amazon.com
The Helen Morgan Story, a musical bio of the great 1920s torch singer, begins with a scene of flappers and jazz babies spontaneously dancing on a train. If you can buy into that kind of crazy history, you might just enjoy this tuneful 1957 drama, the rise-fall-comeback of a tragic showbiz figure (which neglects to include the tragic final act). Ann Blyth, who'd garnered an Oscar nomination for playing Joan Crawford's ingrate daughter in 1945's Mildred Pierce, is Helen Morgan, the Prohibition songstress for whom perching atop a piano became a signature pose. We watch Morgan's early successes crooning in speakeasies, and her wrong moves in her personal life; seems the lady just can't help lovin' a no-good gangster, played by Paul Newman (still very early in his career). Newman's character keeps showing up, like a bad penny, even after Helen is taken up by a wealthy (and married) lawyer, played by Richard Carlson. The many heartbreaks eventually lead to alcohol addiction, which killed the real Morgan in 1941, although the film stops short of her unfortunate ending. Morgan's success in the original production of Show Boat goes by quickly, but the movie includes a decent roster of songs from various stages of her career. Michael Curtiz directed, and his dark eye (and Ted Tetzlaff's widescreen black-and-white cinematography) gives the movie a pleasing film-noir overlay. The biggest problem is Blyth, too small for the role and finally defeated by the simplistic diagnosis of Morgan's problems. Blyth's singing voice was dubbed by Gogi Grant, who has a strong voice that doesn't especially sound like Morgan's. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

The Little Girl on the Piano with the Great Big Voice
The Helen Morgan Story is a formula biopic with equal parts soap, song and gin. The thing that makes it stand out are three very good performances and a wonderful parade of vintage 1920's hits voiced for the star by Gogi Grant.
From the moment the film begins to unreel with its Broadway marquee titles you know you are in for a good old-fashioned tearstained campy drama. Loosely based on the life of Helen Morgan, who is most famous today for creating the role of Julie in the groundbreaking "Show Boat" in the 20's. The film centers on her rise and fall as well as her unrequited love for gangster Larry Maddux.
Playing the title role is Ann Blyth who does her best to give Helen all the pathos, drama and tragedy required in such a story. She does a fine job but one can't help but recall her best work as Veda in Mildred Pierce. Some years earlier.
The real stars of the show are comedian Alan King, TV star Cara Williams and a new guy to pictures by the name of Paul Newman. These three pros take a filmland formula and mix it until it explodes.
Alan King is quite a fine actor as well as a gifted comedian. He imbues the character of Benny Weaver, Larry's partner with life and humor. As Helen's best friend and Benny's moll Cara Williams shines.
But the best performance is given by a very young Paul Newman who shows us just what he could do with the good for nothing huckster role. He soars in the role and gives us a preview of some of the better roles he will fill out in the future from Fast Eddie to Hud.
The black and white cinematography by Ted D. McCord is stunning as are the sets and costumes. And the Warner Brothers orchestra makes the mono soundtrack burst its boundaries to near stereophonic sound. The dirction by Michael Curtiz who had been making films since 1912 is solid and dependable.
One hopes that there may be a DVD release of this film in the future.

(February 18, 2009) And now it is out on DVD in all it's Cinemascope glory. It looks great and the sound is full and gorgous. A must have for any Paul Newan fan as well as fan's of great old standard songs from the 20's.

A typical Hollywood "biography" that transforms an artist's life into a cliché-ridden soap opera...
The film explains the decline of Helen Morgan (Ann Blyth) into alcoholism as the result of unsuccessful romances, especially one with Larry Maddux (Newman), a two-bit bootlegger...

Larry is an almost one-dimensional and ultimately unbelievable character, but he does have qualities that are developed further in later Newman films: he is opportunistic, exploitative, smooth-talking, a man from the wrong side of the tracks who tries to better himself...

Like other Newman characters, he is an outlaw--a con man and gangster--and it is noteworthy that Curtiz had directed Cagney, Bogart and other tough guys in Warners' Golden Era... Larry is also the first of Newman's womanizers--detached, rough, abusive, but irresistibly charming and sexy... He manages to seduce Helen while remaining nasty and cynical, then abandons her, only to keep reappearing and ruining her life... At best he can say, "In my own way, Helen, I love you," although in the unconvincing ending, he reforms...

1957- BAD YEAR FOR A GOOD MOVIE
I FIRST SAW THIS MOVIE AS "THE HELEN MORGAN STORY". I WAS SO INPRESSED I MUST HAVE VIEWED IT 500 TIMES. THE CAST WAS WONDERFUL & THE MOVIE SHOULD HAVE BEEN REVIEWED MUCH BETTER THAT IT WAS. AFTER 50 YEARS IT STILL LIVES WITH THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN IT.
THE BIG STAR OF THIS MOVIE IS THE WONDERFUL SOUNDTRACK FEATURING GOGI GRANT I ADORE HER AND ALL HER MUSIC AND WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO SEE HER IN CONCERT IN 2002. STILL BEAUTIFUL AND SINGING THOSE GREAT SONGS AT 78 IS A TRIBUTE TO THIS STAR. THIS MOVIE AND SOUNDTRACK HAVE ADDED MUCH JOY TO MY LIFE.