Sufrir es mi destino

Mostly fictional, miscast biographical hogwash of hard luck songtress Morgan. Ann Blyth, in her last theatrical feature, was the wrong actress for the title role, many were considered she was probably the least suitable, so the film starts off with a major flaw from the get go. Judy Garland whose style especially when young was compared to Morgan's would have been ideal. Another shortcoming is that although Blyth was a singer whose voice was relatively close to the real Helen Morgan's she is dubbed by Gogi Grant, also a fine singer but completely different from Morgan in sound and technique. If they were going to dub her why not use Helen Morgan's voice? Curtiz direction is unremarkable here, a few of his more customary florid touches would have helped greatly. Paul Newman who was just starting out when this was made is adequate but missing that loutish air that is needed for the reptile he is playing either Kirk Douglas or Robert Ryan would have been more suitable. The real Morgan story is a compelling one so this comes off as a wasted opportunity.

After Doris Day scored a success with Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me and Susan Hayward did well with both Jane Froman and Lillian Roth in With a Song In My Heart and I'll Cry Tomorrow, it was decided that chanteuses of the past were good box office. So Ann Blyth gave it her best effort in a whitewashed version of The Helen Morgan Story.

Problem is that those other women had reasonably happy endings to their stories. Helen Morgan died in 1941, ready to make a comeback, but the years of booze, legal and illegal, took their toll on her body. She was only 41 years old, but packed a lot of hard living and heartache into her body and soul.

I guess it was decided that the audiences wouldn't take to her real unhappy ending so an ending that was out of This Is Your Life was tacked on to this film. It ends roughly in the middle thirties.

Although it's not mentioned at all in the story, Helen Morgan had a Hollywood career. She did an early sound film Applause, shot in New York while she was still on Broadway and introduced in that What Wouldn't I Do For That Man. That was one of her biggest hits and absent from this film. I guess Warner Brothers couldn't secure the rights.

Of course her two best known shows were Showboat and Sweet Adeline. Irene Dunne played her role in the film adaption of Sweet Adeline, but we are fortunate to have Helen doing her original role of Julie in the 1937 Universal film of Showboat. It's where fans today can see and appreciate her best. She also has a number in Al Jolson's Go Into Your Dance and sings another of her hits, The Little Things You Used to Do. Now Warners had the rights to that one.

The Helen Morgan presented here is a hard luck woman who had the misfortune to love and be loved by two wrong men for her. Bootlegger Paul Newman and married attorney Richard Carlson are the men in her life. Actually she did have two marriages, late in her life, and way after the action of this film takes place.

Newman plays one of the first in a long line of cynical characters he breathed life into in his career. To paraphrase a current hit film, he just can't seem to quit Helen nor she him. And Richard Carlson just wants to have his cake and eat it to, wife and kiddies at home and a tootsie on the side, many in fact.

Ann Blyth does a fine acting job. Why she wasn't allowed to use her own fine voice is a mystery since she actually sounds more like the real Helen Morgan than the dubbed Gogi Grant does. You'll see that for yourself in Showboat. Personally I'd have told Jack Warner to take the part and put it in an inconvenient place with that kind of arrangement.

It's hardly the real Helen Morgan Story, but it's a grand excuse to hear some fabulous Tin Pan Alley tunes of an era never to return.

Back in the 1950s, when musical biopics abounded, Hollywood didn't really care about casting actors and actresses who looked or sounded like their real-life counterparts, like Doris Day in Love Me or Leave Me and Susan Hayward in I'll Cry Tomorrow. Why, then, would Hollywood ever dub Ann Blyth's beautiful singing voice when she was cast to play a singer? Helen Morgan was not an opera singer, but if you know what she sounds like, Ann could have dummied her voice down and sounded exactly like her. Gogi Grant, who dubbed every song, sang in a husky, belting alto voice. Whether or not Ann's dubbing was agreed upon beforehand or a tragic surprise, as sometimes was the case, it's inexcusable.

That being said, Ann Blyth has the last laugh as she acts her way through someone else's singing voice and pulls off an incredible performance. In her dramatic scenes, she's harrowingly raw. During the songs, her facial expressions almost fool you into thinking she hasn't been dubbed.

If you liked either or both of the Ruth Etting or Lillian Roth biopics, it's a sure bet you'll love The Helen Morgan Story, which is a cross between the two. Starting as a hula dancer in a carnival sideshow, the ambitious singer works her way through sleazy nightclubs and speakeasies until she achieves fame and unhappiness. When do musical biopics feature a happy performer?

Alcohol and bad judgment are Helen Morgan's downfalls, and as both temptations continue to rear their pretty heads and cause trouble, the movie draws very obvious parallels to the Etting and Roth biopics. It's not anyone's fault that the three women shared similar stories, and it's certainly not Ann's fault that she was asked to act in similar scenes, so keep that in mind when you watch her performance. It's extremely good, and she brings a layer of darkness to her character than Doris Day wouldn't have been able to give, who was the first choice and refused the part. When Ann cries and shares a traumatic memory from her childhood, you really feel her pain and how deep the trauma reaches. This is a woman, beautiful and talented, who has immense problems.

The men of the movie are Paul Newman and Richard Carlson. Obviously, Paul plays the scoundrel and Richard the respectable one, but there's more to each man than meets the eye. Paul isn't just a bad-boy scamp, he's positively terrible, and the fact that Ann continues to melt in his arms whenever he resurfaces shows her self-hatred and lack of self-respect. This is not a movie you'll like Paul Newman in, no matter how cute you normally think he is. Richard Carlson is wealthy, classy, and respectful, but as much as I usually like him, there's a realistic tinge to his character, for nobody's perfect.

Even though Ann Blyth was dubbed, I do recommend watching this movie, especially if you like her or the genre. If the reason she left Hollywood was because of this movie, it's understandable and justified. No one should hide a voice so beautiful, and while she did make some famous movies with famous costars, she could have easily been the queen of musicals and starred in Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Music Man, and Carousel, to name a few. No one would blame her for being underutilized, and after watching this movie, no one would blame her for never making another.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. There are two parts of the movie where the camera tilts to one side then tilts to the other to show Ann Blyth's dizziness, and it will make you very sick. So, when she goes onstage drunk and when she's wandering around on the sidewalk, "Don't Look, Mom!"

If for no other reason, the movie is memorable for the great vocals by Gogi Grant. It has its inconsistencies, such as Helen Morgan wears the same 5 inch stillettos throughout the movie. Were they even available in the 1930s? Go past that and this makes a great tearjerker, or a "rainy-day stay in the house and curl up on the couch" movie. Today, I'd say it would be reated PG-14.

Since I was born decades after this film was made and this film was made about the period of Helen Morgan's life decades before 1957, I wasn't sure I would be able to appreciate it as much as perhaps it deserved to be. Actually I found it to be somewhat timeless in its depiction of the eternal quest for fame and fortune and the pitfalls that occur along the way. Even in today's headlines we see talented performers who achieve fame and fortune only to stumble due to relationship difficulties, substance abuse and shady characters in their entourage. Although I am not familiar with the real Helen Morgan, Ann Blyth does a credible job in portraying how stardom doesn't always lead to happiness and Paul Newman is very good as an opportunist with a conscience.