Musique dans mon coeur

Tony Martin has "Music in My Heart," a 1940 B movie also starring Rita Hayworth, Edith Fellows, Alan Mowbray, Eric Blore and George Tobias. Martin is singer Bob Gregory, who is about to be deported. We never get the full story, except his parents never applied for citizenship. Presumably he was born elsewhere but raised in the U.S. On his way to the boat to leave the country, his cab collides with the one carrying gorgeous Patricia O'Malley (Hayworth) who is on her way to the boat, too, so she can marry a rich man (Mowbray). They both miss the boat, and Bob ends up not only staying with Patricia's family but falling in love with her as well.

The film is filled with music and some great singing by Martin, who by the time I was a child, wasn't doing this type of singing any longer. He had a fantastic tenor voice. Rita's hair looks black here but she's no less beautiful. She only has one dance, but it's basically hip movement - we don't get to see much else. She and Martin make a handsome team and give relaxed performances.

"Music in My Heart" is probably a cut above a B, considering the cast. Since Cohn was grooming Rita for stardom, he surrounded her with good talent. Not that she needed anyone else around her - she always glittered like gold.

"Music in My Heart" is a light comedy and musical romance. Columbia Pictures wasn't yet among the top studios in Hollywood, but it was beginning to compete well with the Big Five in comedies, musicals, and dramas. This film came out while World War II was underway, but a full year before the U. S. would enter the war. Rita Hayworth had been in films for six years, but her star was just beginning to rise after the 1939 smash hit with Cary Grant, "Only Angels Have Wings" Sill, she had second billing here to Tony Martin who was a popular singer and actor at the time.

Both Martin (as Robert Gregory) and Hayworth (as Patricia O'Malley) sing in this picture, and while it's not billed as a comedy, the comedy carries much of the film. It has a fine supporting cast of some top comedy actors of the period -- Eric Blore, Alan Mowbray, and George Tobias. Andre Kostelanetz and his Orchestra add to the music. A better screenplay could have made more use of Blore and Mowbray.

The plot is fair and has a very unusual, but funny and happy ending. Martin, by the way, was a very accomplished musician on a couple of instruments as well. Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Robert Gregory, "You don't mean Charles Gardner, the millionaire publisher?" Patricia O'Malley " Uh huh." Gregory, "Say, he's got lots of money." O'Malley, "Most millionaires have."

Robert Gregory, "If you don't mind me saying so, you don't sound very much in love with him." Patricia O'Malley, "I do mind." Gregory, "Well, then, I won't say it."

Griggs (Eric Bore), "Shall we try some more bicarbonate, sir?" Charles Gardner (Alan Mowbray), "No, the bicarbonate interferes with the brandy."

Music In My Heart was another step up the ladder in the career of Rita Hayworth to when she became the number one sex goddess of the American cinema. For this one, Harry Cohn borrowed Tony Martin from Darryl Zanuck at Fox for her leading man. The song writing team of Robert Wright and Chet Forrest wrote some nice songs for Martin, one of which, It's a Blue World was nominated for an Oscar in 1940.

Tony Martin is an actor/understudy who gets his first break on Broadway just as he's being deported. In full costume as a Ruritanian guardsman, he jumps in a cab. The cab is racing to the Hudson river pier when it collides with another cab in a fender bender. Who should be in that cab, but Rita Hayworth (Martin, you lucky dog). She's racing to the pier to be with Alan Mowbray, a millionaire she's planning to marry.

I think everyone can guess the rest. That's what it was like in Hollywood back then, silly plots, but oh so charmingly presented.

The supporting cast was pretty good for a B film. Alan Mowbray and Eric Blore as the millionaire and his factotum butler have some very funny moments. So does George Tobias as a phony Russian aristocrat.

In his joint memoirs with wife Cyd Charisse, Martin describes a hilarious incident while shooting this. Martin has a song Punchinello to sing to an organ grinder's monkey named same. The monkey had a mind of his own and started up to the roof of the sound stage and wouldn't come down. Martin says Harry Cohn went into an apoplectic rage over this and got no sympathy from his human employees who enjoyed seeing this monkey make a monkey out of Cohn while costing him thousands of dollars while cast and crew sat around getting paid by the hour.

A nice enjoyable film and a step up in the career ladder of Margaret Carmen Cansino.

This has to be one of the most underrated of Rita's films, yet is up there with the best. A very short runtime of just 69 minutes, it still manages to dish up a delightful 'boy meets girl' tale - when their cabs collide, of course changing both their destinies. A simple little musical, it gives Rita just the one dance, which is not photographed all that well, but shows what will be in years to come. Any Rita fans out there, you will thoroughly enjoy this I guarantee it. I almost didn't buy it when I had the chance due to not being able to find reviews anywhere, so I feel I have to write this to save someone else from passing it up!

I have this movie on DVD and I have to say that I truly enjoy this film. It's too bad that Tony Martin and Rita Hayworth didn't do another film together. They compliment each other perfectly. The songs are great and even though this film isn't exactly a "B" movie, nor is it an "A" movie, it's considered an "A-" film, the production values are really good, the cast is great, and the songs are excellent. The only complaint that I have about this film is that it isn't longer. Had the length been a little longer and been directed by a more famous director, this film could have been a movie musical classic. Besides that, I really enjoyed this film and it's interesting to see Rita in one of her early film roles. Definitely a must see movie for any Rita Hayworth or Tony Martin fans.