Bem no Meu Coração

With a running time of 2 hours and 12 minutes, this film is a bit long, but well worth it. Where else can you see all this talent except in a beautiful M-G-M film from the 1950s? The music, acting as well as the clothes and sets are wonderful. Jose Ferrer, though not a favorite of mine, is a really great actor and he gives a tour de force when he performs his entire show, playing all the parts, in front of the woman he loves and her disapproving mother. It's quite funny and unlike how we usually think of Ferrer. He also smiles more in this film than any other and he possesses some charm. Aside from Ferrer, the music is the star and there is plenty of it, all displayed and performed by the top stars at Metro. We get to see and compare Gene Kelly and his brother Fred who have a cute number. There is also the only pairing of Jose Ferrer and his wife, the spectacular Rosie Clooney to whom he was twice married, for a total of five marriages in all. Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Ann Miller and Vic Damone all add their talents and are exceptionally appealing. The story is devoid of all the falsifications of other biographies such as Gershwin's and Porter's.

There is also great sentiment as when Romberg performs his Carnegie Hall concert and dedicates it to his wife. Helen Traubel sings quite a lot of songs in this film, but her voice is excellent, despite the rather simple role of restaurant owner-friend-singer.

Also nice, is seeing some actors who are still with us in character roles such as Robert Easton, Russ Tamblyn, and I do believe I detected a very young Robert Wagner as the "football player" in the Artists and Models stage scene, as an extra.

In all, this is an excellent film of the period, with very cute humor, and helps educate fully about Romberg's music.

"Deep in My Heart" is a 1954 MGM musical starring Jose Ferrer. It purports to tell the story of Sigmund Romberg, and while much I'm sure is left out, the film is filled with not only great music, but great singing.

Well directed by Stanley Donen, the movie shows us Romberg trying to fit in with the musical comedy style, but really having a talent with a more classical, operetta-like bend.

Not only is the music beautiful, but it is exquisitely sung by some of the best singers of that era. My favorite song, "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" from "New Moon" is initially sung by the great Wagnerian opera star, Helen Traubel.

And be still my heart, my second favorite song, "Lover Come Back to Me" is sung by Tony Martin and Joan Weldon. Martin was for me the best tenor of that time, better than Allan Jones, James Melton - absolutely phenomenal.

MGM pulled out all the stops, with Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller taking part in "One Alone" and "It" respectively; Vic Damone is on hand for a well-sung "The Road to Paradise," and he's joined by Jane Powell for "Will You Remember" from "Maytime," which in the beginning of the film is the operetta Romberg keeps insisting he wants to do.

Gene Kelly and his brother Fred Kelly sing and dance to "I Love to Go Swimmin' with Wimmin" - you a see from the titles that Romberg had a versatility. Howard Keel a strong "Your Land and My Land."

The song "Mr. And Mrs." is performed by real-life Mr. And Mrs. Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney. One number after another, a fine film for a music lover.

The cast is interesting - Merle Oberon as Romberg's writing partner Dorothy Donnelly, Walter Pidgeon is Shubert, Paul Henried is Flo Ziegfeld, and Dorothy Avedon, who died some months ago, is Romberg's beloved wife Lillian.

All in all, a feast for the ears and eyes, with Ferrer doing a beautiful, energetic job as Romberg, even at one point performing an entire musical at full speed by himself. Very impressive.

A gem from MGM.

The music is, of course, the reason to watch this movie. Jose Ferrer does an admirable job of portraying the composer Sigmund Romberg, and an all-star cast performs some of Romberg's tunes.

Especially noteworthy is Rosemary Clooney, singing, most appropriately, the song "Mr. and Mrs." with her then-husband, Ferrer. "Deep in My Heart" was their only on-screen performance together.

Other memorable moments feature brothers Fred and Gene Kelly dancing and Ferrer performing a one-man show. Altogether, the film is long and somewhat slow but the music makes it worth watching.

This was the last of the musical biographies made in Hollywood.

They had falsified the lives of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, so they looked up Sigmund Romberg, whose old fashioned but very sweet music had been lost in silly librettos. Note that his musical shows have not been revived in decades. But MGM put this biography in the capable hands of screen writer Leonard Spigelglass, who decided to tell the true but simple story with a tongue-in-cheek approach, and of first rate director Stanley Donen, who made miracles chiefly by employing a cast of people who really knew how to act. Especially Jose Ferrer. The result is a movie that manages to ring true, and not a sleep-inducing hit parade. Romberg was a composer for the twenties, full of viennese nostalgia like Friml and Herbert. None of them could survive the jazz invasion of the musical comedy, but their songs are always popular, naturally out of their theatrical context. Deep in my Heart deserves to be seen.The songs are still highly enjoyable, and Donen, Spigelglass, Ferrer and the rest of the cast gave their best to the film.

DEEP IN MY HEART is one of the last of the great MGM Musicals, and almost unknown today. This is too bad, because it contains some wonderful musical numbers: Cyd Charisse at her most spectacular in a number from THE DESERT SONG, Gene Kelly and his brother Fred as song-and-dance men, Jose Ferrer doing a surprising one-man-show routine that is astonishing, as well as a charming song and dance with opera star Helen Traubel. It is supposedly based on the life of famed composer, Sigmund Romberg, and it is presented in typical MGM glossy style, but this was a composer of great melodies who deserved the plush treatment. This is a top-flight production that is well worth watching. You'll see additional numbers by Ann Miller, Howard Keel, Jane Powell and Rosemary Clooney!