A Canção Prometida

Gregg Toland, the great director of photography of CITIZEN KANE, WUTHERING HEIGHTS and THE GRAPES OF WRATH was said to be the highest paid D.P. in America, as well as perhaps the finest B&W lighting cameraman the major Hollywood studio system ever produced. Under long- term contract to producer Sam Goldwyn, he died at the early age of forty-four in 1948, the same year this film was made for his boss. A SONG IS BORN is one of his few Technicolor films. For a man of visual genius, the photography here is surprisingly routine—flatly lit and uninspired compared to the more adventurous color work being done about the same time by Harold Rosson and Joe Rutenberg at the MGM studios. Perhaps Toland was too ill at the time to pay much attention to this project, no more motivated to do his best than was the film's director, the usually brilliant Howard Hawks who had directed BALL OF FIRE, an earlier version of the same story. The film is also flawed by garish makeup for the gorgeous Virginia Mayo. On the plus side, jazz lovers get a few brief moments of pleasure: a rare chance to hear America's prime band leaders of the time—Armstrong, Dorsey, Goodman, Hampton, Louis Armstrong—jamming together with sidemen Mel Powell and Louie Bellson. (Fletcher Henderson probably did the band arrangements) There is absolutely no comparison between this insipidly silly remake and the charming earlier B&W version which starred the incomparable Barbara Stanwyck as the bad/good girl and Gary Cooper in the role Danny Kaye assays with only moderate success.

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."

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.

This is a musical remake of the 1940 classic "Ball of Fire". The plot is almost the same, a gangster's moll crashes the residence of a bunch of professors who are writing an encyclopedia, and falls in love the the youngest one. This time they're a musical encyclopedia rather than a generalized one, which allows for a lot of musical numbers, some of them pretty enjoyable. It's a lively, superficial, colorful musical with some laughs to it, if you haven't seen "Ball of Fire" you'll probably have quite a good time.

But the film and especially the performances are vastly inferior to the original. Virginia Mayo is the same as she always was in musical comedies, a sort of generic leading lady/straight man. Danny Kaye is limited by his role, he's playing an uptight nerd and can't use his fabulous manic energy at all for most of the film (Gary Cooper was absolutely hilarious as the uptight nerd in the original, he was one good actor). The supporting performances are all pretty cartoonish, none stand out, but there are appearances by Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, and Lionel Hampton which you might want to catch.

I have this on a vhs and watch it from time to time. Apart from the musical sequences, the story pleases me because Danny Kaye is taken for an idiot by the young lady but in the end she falls in love with him ! It is a pleasure to watch the way her attitude changes. There are not many films with this kind of story, so when I see one I like to treasure it ! In addition to this the musical sequences are memorable with well-known stars. Hopefully they will put it onto Dvd but unfortunately the DVD industry seems to have forgotten about Danny Kaye !