Musique dans mon coeur

Tony Martin has "Music in My Heart," a 1940 B movie also starring Rita Hayworth, Edith Fellows, Alan Mowbray, Eric Blore and George Tobias. Martin is singer Bob Gregory, who is about to be deported. We never get the full story, except his parents never applied for citizenship. Presumably he was born elsewhere but raised in the U.S. On his way to the boat to leave the country, his cab collides with the one carrying gorgeous Patricia O'Malley (Hayworth) who is on her way to the boat, too, so she can marry a rich man (Mowbray). They both miss the boat, and Bob ends up not only staying with Patricia's family but falling in love with her as well.

The film is filled with music and some great singing by Martin, who by the time I was a child, wasn't doing this type of singing any longer. He had a fantastic tenor voice. Rita's hair looks black here but she's no less beautiful. She only has one dance, but it's basically hip movement - we don't get to see much else. She and Martin make a handsome team and give relaxed performances.

"Music in My Heart" is probably a cut above a B, considering the cast. Since Cohn was grooming Rita for stardom, he surrounded her with good talent. Not that she needed anyone else around her - she always glittered like gold.

This has to be one of the most underrated of Rita's films, yet is up there with the best. A very short runtime of just 69 minutes, it still manages to dish up a delightful 'boy meets girl' tale - when their cabs collide, of course changing both their destinies. A simple little musical, it gives Rita just the one dance, which is not photographed all that well, but shows what will be in years to come. Any Rita fans out there, you will thoroughly enjoy this I guarantee it. I almost didn't buy it when I had the chance due to not being able to find reviews anywhere, so I feel I have to write this to save someone else from passing it up!

Music In My Heart was another step up the ladder in the career of Rita Hayworth to when she became the number one sex goddess of the American cinema. For this one, Harry Cohn borrowed Tony Martin from Darryl Zanuck at Fox for her leading man. The song writing team of Robert Wright and Chet Forrest wrote some nice songs for Martin, one of which, It's a Blue World was nominated for an Oscar in 1940.

Tony Martin is an actor/understudy who gets his first break on Broadway just as he's being deported. In full costume as a Ruritanian guardsman, he jumps in a cab. The cab is racing to the Hudson river pier when it collides with another cab in a fender bender. Who should be in that cab, but Rita Hayworth (Martin, you lucky dog). She's racing to the pier to be with Alan Mowbray, a millionaire she's planning to marry.

I think everyone can guess the rest. That's what it was like in Hollywood back then, silly plots, but oh so charmingly presented.

The supporting cast was pretty good for a B film. Alan Mowbray and Eric Blore as the millionaire and his factotum butler have some very funny moments. So does George Tobias as a phony Russian aristocrat.

In his joint memoirs with wife Cyd Charisse, Martin describes a hilarious incident while shooting this. Martin has a song Punchinello to sing to an organ grinder's monkey named same. The monkey had a mind of his own and started up to the roof of the sound stage and wouldn't come down. Martin says Harry Cohn went into an apoplectic rage over this and got no sympathy from his human employees who enjoyed seeing this monkey make a monkey out of Cohn while costing him thousands of dollars while cast and crew sat around getting paid by the hour.

A nice enjoyable film and a step up in the career ladder of Margaret Carmen Cansino.

MUSIC IN MY HEART is the kind of predictable little programmer that Columbia churned out on a regular basis during the late '30s and early '40s. It's not exactly an A-film--more like a classy B flick--but it's strictly formula stuff all the way with a predictable plot based on the boy meets girl--boy loses girl--boy wins girl idea.

TONY MARTIN, looking great and in good voice, gets a chance to dominate the proceedings with his strong vocal abilities, especially on a little number called "It's A Blue World." RITA HAYWORTH, with dark hair and low hairline, is attractive and fetching as his girlfriend, but she barely gets a chance to do more than shake her hips in her one dance number. It's easy to see that she was photogenic in all of her close-ups and on the verge of becoming a big star.

The supporting cast is a good one, including ALAN MOBRAY, ERIC BLORE and GEORGE TOBIAS. I'm not keen about EDITH FELLOWS (as Rita's younger sister), sorry to say.

It's pleasant, light entertainment with a silly story and some humor that is only mildly amusing, involving a rascal of a monkey.

It's good to see a very young Rita Hayworth (before her Columbia make-over) looking terrific and having a lot of fun along with young and handsome Tony Martin who's in excellent voice singing pleasant songs including the Oscar nominated IT'S A BLUE WORLD. They give delightful performances and work well together.

A fine supporting cast is headed by the charming, underrated Edith Fellows who assists Martin in two numbers. While Alan Mowbray, Eric Blore, George Tobias and George Humbert all do well in the kind of parts they had played many times before but which was welcomed with glee by audiences of the thirties and forties.

Rita gets a chance to dance a little but her exceptional terpsichorean talents are wasted here.

A most enjoyable way to pass an hour.