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This movie, about the life and times of stage composer Jerome Kern works best when it showcases pieces of his famous musical productions such as SHOWBOAT, LEAVE IT TO JANE, SALLY, OH BOY amongst others. The story of his life just proves a lot less interesting...no that's not the right word I'm looking for...I mean a lot less captivating than his music. When we see stars such as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Tony Martin, Angela Lansbury, June Allyson, Lena Horne, Katherine Grayson, Cyd Charisse, Ray McDonald amongst others singing and performing on stage, there's magic in the air. Robert Walker as Kern does prove likable enough in the lead role and there's an innocent charm at work in these proceedings but things do run on perhaps a little too long.

Back in the day when Hollywood was doing biographical pictures of some of our most famous popular composers, it was generally acknowledged that they were nothing more than an excuse to string musical numbers together. Till the Clouds Roll By is the best example of that tradition.

Jerome Kern wrote some of the best music ever heard in the world. But he was a pretty dull fellow in real life. He married the love of his life, had one daughter and was never linked with any of the famous stars he wrote for.

He actually did have two incidents in real life that would have made great screen drama. He had a heart attack that almost took him in 1938 where he was actually dead for several minutes. Kern always claimed after that any music he did write was due to heavenly intervention.

When he did die in 1945, he collapsed on the street near Carnegie Hall in late 1945. He was back in New York after several years in Hollywood to negotiate with Rodgers&Hammerstein who were going to produce a musical about Annie Oakley. Of course we know who got that assignment eventually.

His wallet must have fallen from his pocket and gotten lifted because Kern remained unidentified for a few days and was in a charity ward at a NYC hospital when he died. Kern in fact died while production plans were being made for Till the Clouds Roll By. Still those two true incidents would have made great cinema.

The film opens with a montage of melodies from Show Boat, his greatest musical success. In fact that whole sequence could have been released as a short subject. The rest of the film is Kern in taxi giving a fictional flashback of his life up to Show Boat which premiered in 1927. We fast forward through the next several years when in fact he wrote his best music for stage and then the screen. And there is a musical finale.

Curiously enough MGM had two guys on their lot at the time who actually had sung Kern songs on the screen, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, and neither of them got in this film. Kathryn Grayson later did full adaptations of Show Boat and Roberta, but hadn't sung anything of Kern's up to that point. The only one in the cast actually performing a song he actually was identified with was Tony Martin. He sang Make Believe with Grayson during the Show Boat sequence, but also had made a hit record of one of Kern's best songs All the Things You Are which came out in 1939. Martin sang it beautifully during the finale.

You certainly can't complain about the vocalizing here though. With such additional folks as Lena Horne, Van Johnson, June Allyson, and Judy Garland contributing their talents who could complain.

Caleb Peterson who is a black baritone sang Ol Man River in the Show Boat sequence. During the finale, it's sung by Frank Sinatra. Sinatra sings it great, but given the song's identification with Paul Robeson it should have been done by him. Of course Mr. Robeson was having blacklist problems then. Still and all the white suited Sinatra was out of place to say the least.

If you're a fan of Jerome Kern as I am, just put the plot out of your head. Sit back and listen to the music.

In light of my having recently perused the 1978 Kern biography by the British author Michael Freedland, I have decided to revise my review (Sunday December 30, 1007).

In this case, Jerome Kern's real life story was not very interesting so Guy Bolton and Company simply made another one up. And the real Jerry was nothing to look at so they got Robert Walker to play him. (Next year Walker played the much-better-looking young Brahms to whom he bore a strong resemblance, believe it or not!) The character "James I. Hessler" played by Van Heflin, it must be said at the outset, is completely fictional. But it gives the fictionalized Jerry someone to play off of and gives us the equally fictional daughter "Sally Hessler", played as an adult by Lucille Bremer, an excuse to provide much of the drama missing in the composer's life. I felt, though, that this added drama was a bit of a cheat.

The section where Kern searches for "Sally" has some basis in fact. Kern actually did search for someone connected with a British friend and was successful in locating the person.

The courtship by Kern of his English wife Eva Leale is, however, even closer to the truth and the marriage was at least a durable if not entirely a happy one. All the more reason for the invention of "Sally".

Apparently though, it's true that the second time he met the producer Charles Frohman, the latter mistook Kern for British and Jerry didn't want to disabuse him as Frohman didn't think much of American songwriters. But when they disembarked in New York,an old acquaintance of Kern's gave the game away and Frohman was furious for a time. He said that he hoped Jerry could find his way around the city on his own.

The odd story that Kern was supposed to sail with Frohman on the Lusitania in 1915 but missed the sailing is also true, except that this was due to his having overslept (He had stayed up all hours and had given the long-standing order that no one disturb his sleep.) and not the fictional reason that it was his too-late last minute decision to sail with Frohman. Considering what happened to the Lusitania, it was sunk by a German submarine and Mr. Frohman died along with many others, the missed sailing was a good career move for Kern!

Another thing that needs to be said was that the real Kern, in common with Irving Berlin and other songwriters, was rather of an egomaniac and martinet. And he gave his wife a good deal of grief as an habitual practical joker.

Kern passed away before the film was finished and the production shut down at first. But it started up again and the film ends with a concert of excerpts from his music as a tribute. "Ol' Man River" is presented early on in the selections from "Show Boat". There it was sung by Caleb Peterson, presumably playing the original Joe, Jules Bledsoe. (Yes, the part was written for Paul Robeson but a conflict prevented him from originating it on Broadway.) However, in a breathtakingly ill-advised decision (because of his voice type rather than his ethnic background), the film ends with a young Frank Sinatra reprising it. This may have been done to show how universal Kern's music is and it must be admitted that Frank gives an impressive accounting of it with his fabled breath control and firmly-held long note. (In the long run, the song belonged to Robeson even if he later mangled the words to fit his political beliefs. Yes, I heard Robeson sing it at New York's City College and I can attest to that!)*

Though I didn't think much of the biographical sections of the film, I must admit the music was well-served especially by Angela Lansbury, Lena Horne, Tony Martin, Dinah Shore, Judy Garland (as Marilyn Miller.), and others. It is not likely this cast will ever be equaled.

*I was wrong about this, apparently. Hammerstein (A "lefty" himself!) revised the words thus giving credence to the old expression "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"!

I have always liked this movie and as time goes on it seems to be a bit dated but if you like Technicolor and musicals you will like this movie. Most of the stars are unfamiliar to audiences today and you must suspend your belief in this being a true story of Jerome Kern and just enjoy the music and dance. Great Judy Garland sequences and great color. Unfortunately, the movie's copyright has lapsed and you can only get inferior versions on DVD. Occasionally, TCM will show this film with a good print. Jerome Kern, by his own admission, was not very exciting, so having Robert Walker play him didn't harm the man's reputation. Good job by Van Heflin. The worst performance has to be the woman who plays Kern's wife. All musical numbers are well done and great entertainment. I recommend this for anyone who wants to see an old 40's musical, keeping in mind what audiences in those days liked and expected.

Jerome Kern died while MGM's bio-pic TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY was still in the pre-production stage--and while Kern had been more than willing for MGM to tell all, his estate was considerably more reticent. In order to avoid any legal issues, MGM scrapped their original intentions, wrote up a fluffy script that bore little similarity to Kern's life, and crammed the film with every musical star available in a non-stop series of drop-dead-stunning production numbers.

The result may be extremely bad biography, but leading man Robert Walker and co-star Van Heflin keep the sentimental story moving--and the musical numbers are piled on top of each other so quickly that one doesn't really question it. The film opens with a lengthy montage from SHOWBOAT, Kern's innovative masterpiece, that features knock-out performances from Lena Horne, Katheryn Grayson, and Virgina O'Brien, and then quickly segues into a series of star-solos that feature June Allyson, Gower Champion, Cyd Charisse, Angela Lansbury, Dinah Shore, and Frank Sinatra.

Along the way we are also treated to an extended cameo by Judy Garland, performing "Look For The Silver Lining" precisely as Marilyn Miller played it on stage and singing "Who?" to a staircase of chorus boys--which Garland was said to find most amusing, considering that she was pregnant at the time. Also notable is Lucille Bremer in the role of Robert Walker's stage-struck ward; although her star quickly faded, Bremer is an attractive performer and shows her talent for song and dance here by teaming with Van Johnson for a spirited version of "I Won't Dance." TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY will not appeal to most casual viewers, for the story line and script are much too weak. But musical fans will love this one all the way from Lansbury doing a Cockney "Spoon With Me" to Sinatra belting out "Old Man River." As a Jerome Kern song-and-dance fest, the movie can't be beat, and it should have a place in every musical fan's collection.

Unfortunately, TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY has slipped into public domain. DVD releases abound, but none seem to offer respectable picture or sound; if you can find the original MGM video release, grab it.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer