A Song Is Born

Where else can you see a jam session with Louie Armstrong on trumpet, Charlie Barnet on saxophone, Benny Goodman on clarinet, and Tommy Dorsey on trombone? Four major swing band leaders jamming out, and they do it more than once on this film. The movie is sufficiently entertaining to watch, but the real treat is the music jam sessions. Some of you may not know Charlie Barnet. Barnet was from a wealthy family, and his bands were more freewheeling than most traditional swing bands. He was the first white band leader to integrate his bands, and he gave Lena Horne her first gig with a major orchestra.

The true big band aficionado will recognize some of the other musicians, but I will not list them here as I might spoil someone's fun.

This movie (a remake of 1941's "Ball of Fire") is an entertaining movie. But if you like swing or JAZZ, you have got to see this! Most Danny Kaye movies have good musical scores, but this one has Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and a number of other greats performing. Not as good a movie as "The Five Pennies", but well worth seeing for the music and for Danny Kaye. Recommended to anyone who likes Jazz and/or Swing.

While there is a decent plot and Danny Kaye does a good job, the best parts are the music scenes with Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey and many others. It is a great collection of popular artists of the 40's and earlier.

There are surprises in the plot, especially if you don't recognize some of the actors until they perform.

Danny Kaye's form of humor is not fully appreciated now, but in his time he drew a large following. This movie is a good example of his artistry. His best movie was probably "Hans Christian Anderson." I watched it as a kid and I can still remember the song "Beautiful, Beautiful Copenhagen."

I'm truly dating myself but back in the swing days there was a bandleader named Sammy Kaye who used that as his band's slogan. Otherwise my title would have been the tag line for this film.

It was only seven years earlier that the original film, Ball of Fire also came from the Sam Goldwyn Studio. In that one Gary Cooper was one of several professors who were putting together an encyclopedia. His specialty was linguistics and he selected Barbara Stanwyck to help in learn new slang terms.

Here it's a musical encyclopedia and Virginia Mayo stumbles into the lives of the sheltered professors putting this history together. They've led such a cloistered existence that the whole jazz era has passed them by. So Kaye in the Cooper role and another professor played by Benny Goodman with Mayo get some of the best to help them along.

A Song is Born is a pleasant although a previous reviewer is correct in saying that Danny Kaye is far more subdued than usual in this film. But anytime you can get Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, and Mel Powell together for a jam session, the film automatically becomes worthwhile.

This is for every fan of jazz in the world.

"A Song is Born" was made in 1948. This was a remake of 1941's "Ball of Fire" with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.

A group of dull music professors are studying the history of music. Two window cleaners urge Danny Kaye, a music professor, to go out and hear music around him.

In Damon Runyan-like atmosphere, he accidentally gets involved with gangsters and their moll-Virginia Mayo.

She hides out by Kaye and his other professors as she is wanted for questioning regarding a murder that her guy-Steve Cochran-may have committed. Remember Cochran and Mayo two years earlier in the Oscar-winning "The Best Years of Our Lives?"

When she hides out, she brings an assortment of musicians with her to join the professors and all belt out music. Thanks to Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey, the music shines. Benny Goodman is unrecognizable as one of the corny music professors.

The hostage situation at film's end is hilarious at best.

A musical treat; funny and memorable when Kaye pops the question. Lots of good fun.