Rhapsody in Blue
2 hrs. 41 min. / B&W / 1.37:1 / DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono / SDH
Warner Archive BD $24.99
Available from Movie Zyng
George Gershwin’s unexpected death in 1937 at the age of only 38 left behind a body of music that’s rarely been equaled since and the gnawing hunger for Hollywood to dramatize his life and by “dramatize” we mean, of course, “make a lot of stuff up” because that’s what Hollywood did in its biopics. As if to compensate for the dramatic shortcomings of the film, however, we get a greatest hits movie with all of the most memorable and immortal Gershwin classics, including An American in Paris, Swanee, excerpts from Porgy and Bess, and of course his most revered work, Rhapsody in Blue.
Robert Alda and Herbert Rudley are the Gershwin boys, George and Ira, with Rosemary DeCamp and the scene-stealing Morris Carnovsky as Mama and Papa Gershwin, who supply most of what little humor is in the film. George Gershwin’s actual love life would’ve never got passed the Hays Office, so the screenwriters (and nearly everybody on the lot who had a typewriter took a swing at it, credited or not) conjured up not one but two imaginary love interests, the incredibly appealing Joan Leslie as a chorus girl who becomes a star singing Gershwin tunes, and stuffy Alexis Smith as the rich lady George meets in Paris. Miss Smith has a thankless part, but we left this film with a great appreciation for the talented and charismatic Miss Leslie and wished Hollywood would’ve made better use of her.
The film also features Charles Coburn and a host of performers playing themselves, including real-life Gershwin pal Oscar Levant, who shows up from time to time to crack wise and play piano; Al Jolson (singing, what else, Swanee); Paul Whiteman (who was the original conductor of Rhapsody in Blue in the 1920s), George White, and others.
You may be wondering about the extended running time; Warner Archive has restored the full 10 min. overture that preceded the film in major cities, plus an additional 12 min. cut from the theatrical release of the film that extends some of the musical numbers.
So if the film serves as a brilliant showcase for the music of George Gershwin and some of the supporting players show up to entertain us or a new musical number breaks out just as the film’s dramatic sequences start to drag, we can overlook a miscast Robert Alda in the lead and the rather plodding direction of the dialog sequences by Irving Rapper, who gave us Now, Voyager so one thinks he may just have been out of his element in a musical biopic. Truth is, if you love a Gershwin tune, you’ll be able to tolerate the film with no trouble, but if you stumble into this unprepared just be aware that the long, long running time is not to the film’s benefit.
The great news is that Rhapsody in Blue looks and sounds terrific in the new Blu-ray, which was restored via a 4K scan of the original nitrate negative along with other sources, and is up to the phenomenal standards Warner Archive has set for itself. The film’s length prevents the usual inclusion of bonus cartoons but we have a trailer and links to the songs. We were very happy with it.
Note: In the film, shortly before George’s death, Ira tells him they’ll get someone to finish the music he’s working on; that came to pass in 2010, when the Gershwin estate provided Brian Wilson with unfinished songs for his album Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, which we’ve been listening to a lot since Brian’s recent passing. Check it out.
