Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me

Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me (2009)

*** (out of 4)

Extremely well-made and highly informative documentary about the life and career of Johnny Mercer who became one of the best known and most loved songwriters for Hollywood and would end up winning four Oscars. Not only that but he wrote for some of the biggest legends including Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby to name just a few. Clint Eastwood served as executive producer and is also featured in some of the interview clips as Mercer played a big part in terms of music in his film MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL. As a whole, this documentary offers up pretty much everything as we get some nice stories told via the talking heads (including Leonard Maltin), concert clips, interview footage and current singers doing their versions of some classic songs. The documentary features quite a bit of footage and we're constantly learning about Mercer either through the footage or from his own words, which was taken from an interview before his death. The movie for the most part stays focus on his rise in Hollywood but it does briefly talk about his personal life including his relationship with Judy Garland, which started during his work on THE HARVEY GIRLS. Outside of that everything's pretty much on the music which discusses why his lyrics were home made for jazz and how various stars, including Ray Charles, used his songs to gather fame. If you're rather new to Mercer as I was then I'm positive you're going to learn quite a bit as this is an all around great look at him and his music.

"The Dream's On Me" is a fairly interesting celebrity bio-documentary that focuses its attention in on the life and career of American lyricist and composer, Johnny Mercer (1909-1976).

Between the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s - Mercer was at the absolute height of his songwriting career where he frequently collaborated (as a lyricist) with a number of America's top composers and together this dynamic duo produced some of the most memorable hit songs from that era in popular music history.

All-in-all - This 90-minute presentation was well-worth a view.

I have often wondered, through the years, why no one had produced a bio of this talented man. Then I found this and ordered the DVD. I was not impressed at all. It was disjointed and painful to watch. I learned next to nothing about the man himself. His personal life is virtually non-existent. He seems to appear to be about 50 years old throughout the movie. It was more of a paean than a biography. I wish it had had a more chronological aspect. Did Julie Andrews appear for more than 15 seconds? What I found particularly confusing was the dates of composition versus the dates of performance. I hope someone in the near future comes up with a better effort.

Mercer had a wonderful life, and was one of the true giants of 20th century popular music, and fortunately there was tons of archived material to draw on. However, the chronology in this documentary can be somewhat disjointed and, as another commenter has pointed out, it's somewhat confusing to continually display the dates when the songs were written on the screen, without the dates of the actual later performances. Personally, I would have preferred the elimination of most or all of the contemporary (2009) performances, which are often underwhelming....when a simple search of YouTube/the web reveals that there is plenty of footage of Mercer himself that wasn't used in the documentary (i.e. Classic U. S. TV shows, and full-length episodes of Mercer's 1943-44 NBC radio series), well as available vintage performances of his songs by other artists. Of course, I'm viewing this from the perspective of 2023, not a 2009 BBC Arena series audience or as a big fan of co-producer Clint Eastwood and his family/friends! It's interesting to see Paul McCartney and Bono (U2) featured prominently in the closing credits. By the way, I viewed this documentary at YouTube, where it is available nearly in full.

Very interesting biography with lots of Johnny Mercer tunes throughout, as the narration tells the story of one of America's greatest writers of music for the movies--and the millions.

It gets off to a fine start with Dinah Shore rendering a sentimental version of "Moon River" (with clips from "Breakfast At Tiffany's"), and goes on to feature so many of filmdom's immortals, all of whom have done some Johnny Mercer songs at one time or another.

Among the featured songs: "Accentuate the Positive," "Skylark," "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," "Too Marvelous for Words," "P.S. I Love You," "Hooray for Hollywood," "Laura" (the words), "That Old Black Magic," "I'm Old Fashioned," and "Satin Doll." Among the many celebrities: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, Rita Hayworth, Dick Powell, Ella Fitzgerald and many others.

Worth watching for any fan of Mercer's songs and an interesting look at his life and career in show business.