The Helen Morgan Story

You man remember Helen Morgan from the 1936 version of "Show Boat." This film biography, starring Ann Blyth and Paul Newman, shows her rise from sordid beginnings to fame and fortune through her decline and death due to alcoholism. Gogi Grant did the singing for Blyth, once again leaving average viewers bewildered by the decision to cast someone who cannot sing as a singer. This film features many great songs that Morgan made famous during her lifetime, among them: "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," and "Bill" from "Show Boat," "Why Was I Born?" "Ain't She Sweet," "Baby Face," "If You Were the Only Girl in the World," "Avalon," "The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else," "Love Nest," "Do, Do, Do," "Breezin' Along with the Breeze," "The Man I Love," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Deep Night," "April in Paris," and "You Do Something to Me." ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

Clearly inspired by other biopics like Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), this is another tale of a chanteuse whose career success is affected by booze and bad men. Helen Morgan was a star in the 1920's, a nightclub singer who crossed-over into theater for Flo Ziegfeld on Broadway in Showboat. However like so many others, a rapid ascent gave way to a slow decline.

The screenplay by Oscar Saul, Dean Reisner, Stephen Longstreet, and Nelson Gidding, rationalises that the sado-masochistic love of Helen (Ann Blyth) for Larry Maddox (Paul Newman) is what brings her success and failure. Her alcoholism is an ironic symptom of the era of prohibition. Helen is ambitious, but her love for Larry tells us that she would give it all up if he would agree to marry her. However as Larry isn't the marrying kind, she is miserable, not a good state for an entertainer to be in. The lower class milieu that accompanies showbusiness is a breeding ground for these crooks, who see talented women as their meal ticket and a way to improve themselves, and it's no coincidence that Ruth Etting and Fanny Brice too had their troubles with gamblers. When Larry slaps Helen repeatedly and calls her a tramp, the scene could be from any number of biopics.

The dialogue uses period slang for amusing affect eg 'You made those dames look like they were hanging out to dry', Larry is 'stuck on' Helen and tells her 'You're hooked'. When Helen is drunk at a rehearsal, it is said of her 'She's only running on 4 cylinders. It's the gasoline she uses'. The narrative has period oddities such as a lesbian at a rent party, and the wife of lawyer Russell Wade (Richard Carlson) who has an arrangement where it appears she too can be a lesbian, though she refuses to release her meal ticket. Helen gets the standard self-pity in 'I'm no good' and 'Everything I touch turns bad', and we hear the tale of the death of her father when she was a child (Freud, anyone?). However what no one seems to notice is that when Helen is appearing in Showboat and at her nightclub AND drinking, the plain fact seems to be is that she is overworked. Also when Ziegfeld offers her the part of Julie in Showboat that would make her famous, there is no indication that she can even act.

Although the biopic is one of Hollywood's most corrupt genres - revisionist history existing as a star vehicle - it is redeemed when the person biographed is presented as a star. Although Ann Blyth can sing, her vocals are (inexplicably) dubbed, not with Morgan's recordings - Morgan died in 1941 - but by Gogi Grant. Grant's voice is lovely, has that Garland loudness and heartthrob sincerity for ballads, and is also able to jazz it up for 'On The Sunny Side of the Street'. Director Michael Curtiz only lets us see Helen as a star in two numbers - 'The Man I Love', and Why Was I Born?', both when she is supposedly drunk and of course, in perfect voice. Curtiz uses the genre standard cut-aways so we have others opinion of how wonderful Helen is, but otherwise we get Helen singing numbers interrupted or up-staged by drama. There are two other numbers which Helen completes in full - her two songs from Showboat performed in non-Showboat settings, Bill and Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, but the songs are less showy.

Blyth uses Morgan's signature scarf and sits on the accompaniest's piano as she sings, however often her buck teeth up-stage her. Blyth had been memorably directed by Curtiz in Mildred Pierce (1944) with Joan Crawford, and the later Helen recalls Crawford, in her stark make-up and, in a scene where she is required to tell a lie, where her face is a grimace. Curtiz uses expressionist camera-work to indicate Helen's drunken point of view, and the numbers she falters in when performing are camp - her tipsy rehearsal for 'Somebody Loves Me' wearing a hideous dress, and 'You Do Something to Me' where she falls off the piano. Curtiz cuts from her fall to a newspaper headline 'La Morgan stops Broadway show - flat on her face!'. When Helen is 'missing' on a drunken binge, she gets splashed by a passing car, and is ridiculed in a bar when she sings along to a radio broadcast of her own vocal. However, Blyth's screams of Helen in detox jump over camp into empathy.

Curtiz uses the cringe-worthy orchestration of Morgan songs behind dialogue scenes - you can bet 'The Man I Love' gets a workout in the Helen/Larry scenes, but also the silhouette of someone who hangs themselves. Newman is too young for his role - he was actually older than Blyth when the film was made, but he seems younger - and his technique shows. But although he has practically nothing to do, Alan King is good to have around.

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.

During the wild and reckless 1920s, pretty small-town girl Ann Blyth (as Helen Morgan) gets her start as a singer for sex-minded bootlegger Paul Newman (as Larry Maddox). Although deserted after a "one night stand" in Chicago, Ms. Blyth hooks up with Mr. Newman for the long haul. "The customers drink more when they cry," advises Newman, and Blyth becomes a successful "torch singer" (one who sings the blues over lost loves). For publicity and profit, Newman enters Blyth in a "Miss Canada" beauty pageant, although she is not Canadian. Blyth is kept out of jail by kindly lawyer Richard Carlson (as Russell Wade), who becomes the another significant man in her life...

Gogi Grant sings beautifully for Blyth, but one wonders why the actress wasn't allowed to sing for herself. Her style more closely fit the real Helen Morgan's range. Morgan was a big star during the 1920s and 1930s and anyone listening to the radio in 1957 would also be familiar with Ms. Grant's hits - and the titular heroine's real ending. Moviegoers in 1957 must have been puzzled. Blyth is given a role to showcase her acting skills, but holds back; she'd be least haggard looking alcoholic on skid row. Newman had recently been making progress, but appears to still be finding his way. Shadowy scenes staged by director Michael Curtiz and photographer Ted McCord are a strength.

***** The Helen Morgan Story (10/2/57) Michael Curtiz ~ Ann Blyth, Paul Newman, Richard Carlson, Gene Evans