You Will Remember

You Will Remember is a biopic of musical songwriter Leslie Stuart. It also marks a rare starring role for Robert Morley who played Stuart.

The elderly Stuart recalls his rollercoaster life. The day his father brought home a piano which Stuart learned to play. He became a church organist and also played the piano for music hall performers.

As an adult he moved to London and wrote musical comedy. He earned and lost a fortune due to gambling. Even becoming a bankrupt ending up at a debtors prison.

When copies of his sheet music was being sold cheap. Stuart persuaded Parliament for the better enforcement of the copyright laws.

Throughout the ups and downs. Stuart always had the steadfast support of childhood friend Bob Slater. The younger Slater was played by Roddy McDowell.

This is a straightforward film that showcased Stuart's music. I felt disappointed by it as I did not learn too much else about Stuart. Morley played him as a chummy sort, who even when he is down, turned down offers of help and support.

Out of curiosity and because it was very close to where i once lived, I paid a visit where this film was made: Worton Hall Studios, Isleworth . The original grand Worton Hall remains but is now in the middle of an uninteresting housing estate. Actual film stages of the era were often crude-looking crosses between warehouses and early aircraft hangers so I guess are not much missed.

Robert Morley in later years tended to play rather stereotyped roles - corpulent with an upper class accent. He let himself be frequently cast as, I guess an American audiences' vision of a rather ridiculous type of Englishman, possibly harking back to George lll In The African Queen he played a fat, pompous preachy but ineffectual and flaky colonial missionary. Morley was a very intelligent, talented and witty man yet this was not always used in his roles. Here a young Morley - sleek and corpulent - plays the young struggling down at heel composer Leslie Stuart not modifying in the slightest his native plummy Southern English accent to play Stuart who was of working class Irish origin (Charles Victor plays his father with a strong Irish accent), born in Lancashire. Stuart never, judged from photographs, appeared corpulent. Here Morley was simply miscast, silkily gliding through the role, nevertheless, as always, a pleasure to watch.

To me the redeeming feature and revelation is the quality of Stuart's music - at times very beautiful, at times brisk and stirring (the patriotic Soldiers of the King), and other times quirky taking on various current fads - American minstrel music for one. Others, catchy hit songs, I'm not sure any British composer has had this versatility and success. Is he to be compared to Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame? It is surprising to read that he had been the composer of so many still familiar hit songs of his era.

A straightforward musical biopic providing a nostalgic escape into the past from Britain's then dire current situation (although it does display candour that it's subject gambled away most of his money), probably patterned after the recent Hollywood Technicolor production 'Swanee River'. It has the novelty of a relatively young and dashing Robert Morley in a very rare lead; of which his W.S.Gilbert and Oscar Wilde are better recalled.

Among the supporting cast, Roddy McDowell grows up to become Emlyn Williams; while Dorothy Hyson plays Ellaline Terriss, who made a few films herself.

Robert Morley plays Leslie Stuart as a bit of a chump.This is a typical riches to rags story of a composer.The passage of time is marked by Morley wearing a different wig.His best friend is Ellyn Williams who seems a rather full person.However the music is the saving grace

A British biographical drama; A story about Victorian songwriter Leslie Stuart who escaped a life of poverty in Manchester, England, to achieve international success in the early 1900s before falling back into obscurity and hardship. The film, based on a true story, is a conventional rags-to-riches biopic. Robert Morley brings humour and candour to the naive but confident music musicmaker, a delicate portrayal of the man who experienced peaks and troughs in personal fortune. There is strong support from Maurice Kelly as the young infant prodigy, and from Emlyn Williams as his loyal friend Bob Slater. Quaint and catchy Edwardian musical comedy songs help keep the story bouncing along. But it is the film's final sequence that brings a special poignancy to the lasting impact of his creative work and the positive feelings they evoked, summing up what Irving Berlin once said about a musical career: "The song is ended but the melody lingers on."