With a Song in My Heart **** (1952, Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne, Thelma Ritter, Robert Wagner) – Classic Movie Review 5499

A fabulous line-up of evergreen vintage songs lights up director Walter Lang’s sweet and sentimental 1952 musical biopic film account of the life of Jane Froman, who starts out as an aspiring songstress by landing a radio gig.

Susan Hayward memorably stars in With a Song in My Heart as Froman, who shot to a popular singing career that was tragically interrupted by a plane crash in Lisbon in 1943. The story concentrates on the after-effects of the accident, as she remains partly crippled and needs crutches. Despite her disability, she manages to entertain Allied troops in World War Two.

[Spoiler alert] And the film rewrites reality as she stays with her husband Don Ross (David Wayne), the pianist who helped to shape her career, though in real life she married John Burn (Rory Calhoun), the pilot who rescues her.

The movie is a three-hankie tearjerker with excellent performances, especially from Hayward, and a superb soundtrack sung by Froman that includes ‘Blue Moon’, ‘Embraceable You’, ‘Get Happy’, ‘I’m Through with Love’, ‘That Old Feeling’ and ‘California Here I Come’ as well as, of course, the 1929 title track ‘With a Song in My Heart’ by Richard Rodgers (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyrics).

Also in the cast are Thelma Ritter as Clancy, Robert Wagner as a GI paratrooper, Una Merkel, Helen Westcott, Richard Allan, Max Showalter, Lyle Talbot, Leif Erickson, Stanley Logan and Eddie Firestone.

With a Song in My Heart is made and released by 20th Century Fox, runs 116 minutes, is written and produced by Lamar Trotti, is shot by Leon Shamroy and is scored by Alfred Newman.

Music director Alfred Newman won an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture. Hayward and Ritter were Oscar nominated as Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.

Calhoun said in 1959 that the only two good films he made were With a Song in My Heart and How to Marry a Millionaire, the rest being ‘terrible’.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5499

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