Si bémol et fa dièse

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.

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.

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 !

"A Song is Born" was made in 1948. This was a remake of 1941's "Ball of Fire" with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.

A group of dull music professors are studying the history of music. Two window cleaners urge Danny Kaye, a music professor, to go out and hear music around him.

In Damon Runyan-like atmosphere, he accidentally gets involved with gangsters and their moll-Virginia Mayo.

She hides out by Kaye and his other professors as she is wanted for questioning regarding a murder that her guy-Steve Cochran-may have committed. Remember Cochran and Mayo two years earlier in the Oscar-winning "The Best Years of Our Lives?"

When she hides out, she brings an assortment of musicians with her to join the professors and all belt out music. Thanks to Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey, the music shines. Benny Goodman is unrecognizable as one of the corny music professors.

The hostage situation at film's end is hilarious at best.

A musical treat; funny and memorable when Kaye pops the question. Lots of good fun.

Where else can you see a jam session with Louie Armstrong on trumpet, Charlie Barnet on saxophone, Benny Goodman on clarinet, and Tommy Dorsey on trombone? Four major swing band leaders jamming out, and they do it more than once on this film. The movie is sufficiently entertaining to watch, but the real treat is the music jam sessions. Some of you may not know Charlie Barnet. Barnet was from a wealthy family, and his bands were more freewheeling than most traditional swing bands. He was the first white band leader to integrate his bands, and he gave Lena Horne her first gig with a major orchestra.

The true big band aficionado will recognize some of the other musicians, but I will not list them here as I might spoil someone's fun.