Music in My Heart

Since it's the weekend and I've got time to watch somemovies to do full-length posts on, I pulled out my Mill Creek set of Columbia romances and watched Music in My Heart. (Look up the title on the TCM Shop and you'll find the Mill Creek set for something like $5.99.)

Tony Martin plays Robert Gregory, an understudy to the lead in a Broadway show who just wants to get his chance. However, he's got other problems besides the star's never getting sick. Apparently he was born abroad and immigrated as an infant with his parents who have since died, because he's about to be deported and no good explanation is given, save something about his parents screwing up the citizenship papers. Anyhow the lead gives him his one chance to do the show, after which he's put on a taxi to the next boat over to Europe.

Along the way, his speeding taxi careens into another taxi, which has as its passenger Patricia (Rita Hayworth). It turns out that she's on her way to the same boat, where she's going to meet wealthy Charles Gardner (Alan Mowbray) and go to Europe with him to get married. Obviously she's doing it for his millions, and it's clear to Robert that she doesn't really love him. Anyhow, the taxi collision means that the two miss the boat, and have to go back to Patricia's Lower East Side (I think; I'm not certain of my New York City geography) digs, which are in the same building as a restaurant mananged by her "uncle" Luigi and run by Rusian émigré Sascha (George Tobias).

Patricia's kid sister, like everybody else in the movie, recognizes that Robert is the right man for Patricia, even though there's the problem of his looming deportation, or even imprisonment for fleeing the immigration agents. Meanwhile, jilted Charles realizes he's still in love with Patricia, and his butler Griggs (perpetual Hollywood butler Eric Blore) decides he's going to do something to make Patricia come back to Charles....

The story in Music in My Heart isn't a bad one, if nothing terribly original. Unfortunately, the movie stars Tony Martin. He's got all the charisma of a bassoon, and sings in that horrendous operetta style. In fact, he sings multiple songs in that manner, and the film (which is only 70 minutes to begin with) comes to a screeching halt on the occasions they have him sing. Thankfully, one of those occasions is the finale, so that doesn't brin the film to quite as much of a halt.

I mentioned that I got Music in My Heart as part of an eight-film box set. The box set is more than worth it for the price. Music in My Heart wouldn't be worth it on its own. Unless you like that style of music.