The Helen Morgan Story
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.00 You Save: $15.97 (80%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.75 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Helen Morgan Story
Movie Review: PAUL NEWMAN GOLD
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw the Helen Morgan Story in 1969, on a saturday night with my babysitter - I was 11. I have since seen the movie 20 to 30 times and it ages like fine wine. The MOVIE is without a doubt one of the best tear-jerkers ever made. Paul Newman literally jumps off the screen and becomes a star of the highest order. His performance sticks with you AND EVERY FRAME of film is better than the one before. This is a film that will touch every nerve in your heart and soul.Movie Review: The Helen Morgan Story
Summary: 5 Stars
I just loved this love story. I used to see it with my mom that has sinced passed away and can't help remembering her and I singing all the beautiful love songs from the move. Paul Newman is at his very sexiest even though you never see an explicit love scene. That was the good thing about the old movies. They let us use our imagination (and we can get very creative!). You don't know how long I waited to be able to order this movie.Movie Review: Great movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not sure how accurate this movie is in regards to the actual events of Helen Morgans life but the movie has long been one of my favorites. Great movie portrayal by Ann Blyth and Paul Newman. If you like tearjerkers you'll like this movie.Movie Review: The Helen Morgan Story
Summary: 5 Stars
I had never seen this movie until I bought it at amazon.com. Loved the movie...big Paul Newman fan. Ann Blyth is as beautiful as ever.Movie Review: The Voice of Gogi Grant is the real star!
Summary: 4 Stars
The magnificent voice of Gogi Grant at the peak of her considerable powers may be the best thing about "The Helen Morgan Story." The story of her life as depicted here (based on a TV play that starred Polly Bergen, and wouldn't that be fun to see on DVD!) is largely fictionalized, with even some actual events (Helen was actually voted "Miss Mount Royal" when she was studying voice in Canada in the mid-'20s; here, the contest is a set-up somehow tied in with a bootlegging scheme!) turned into melodrama. On the plus side: stunning B&W widescreeen photography; snappy direction by Michael Curtiz; wonderful supporting turns from Cara Williams and Alan King and a fine performance from star Ann Blyth, who somehow manages to make it all believable. Then there is rising star Paul Newman, channeling Clark Gable in his lady-killer period, as the no-goodnik hood who bewitches and bedevils the fragile singing star. Newman mainly glowers his way through a part that he doesn't seem to care for, as was the case with many of his earlier roles (see - or better still don't see - "The Silver Chalice"), but his sex appeal is rampant.
Now for the good stuff: the music. Morgan introduced or performed many outstanding American songs from the golden age of 1926-1933 and many are represented here, recorded on the best sound-stage in Hollywood, with magnificent arrangements by Ray Heindorf and his staff, and featuring Gogi Grant, who receives full screen credit and was pictured on the cover of the best-selling soundtrack album (RCA were no fools: she had just been voted Most Popular Female Singer of 1956 and this was her first major release on their label). Ironically, Grant's voice bears little resemblance to that of Helen Morgan, whose voice was high and sweet but lacking in power, with a wide, expressive vibrato, although her sensitive reading of a lyric more than compensated for her rather limited range. It was Morgan's ACTING ability that helped make her a star and that gave theatergoers such indelible memories of her performances. Gogi's voice has tremendous power and range, and her version of "Why Was I Born" will simply blow you away, yet she sings with delicacy and nuance on songs like "April In Paris" and, of course, "Bill" (performed here in a nightclub sequence since MGM would not permit any scenes from "Showboat" to be used in a Warners' film, depriving us from seeing what was truly the high point of Morgan's career).
As I write this, a two-CD set of Gogi Grant's RCA recordings has just been released, and hopefully the availability of this film on DVD will prompt a new generation to explore the recorded work of this magnificent singer.