Rhapsody in Blue (film)

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Rhapsody in Blue
Poster of Rhapsody in Blue (film).jpg
Film poster
Directed by Irving Rapper
Screenplay by Howard Koch
Elliot Paul
Clifford Odets (uncredited)
Harry Chandlee (uncredited)
Robert Rossen (uncredited)
Story bySonya Levien
Produced by Jesse L. Lasky
Starring Robert Alda
Joan Leslie
Alexis Smith
Hazel Scott
Anne Brown
Cinematography Merritt B. Gerstad
Ernest Haller
Sol Polito
Edited by Folmar Blangsted
Music by George Gershwin
Max Steiner
Ray Heindorf
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates
  • June 26, 1945 (1945-06-26)(New York) [1]
  • September 22, 1945 (1945-09-22)(United States)
Running time
151 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.46 million [2]
Box office$4.9 million [2]

Rhapsody in Blue, subtitled The story of George Gershwin is a 1945 American biographical film about composer and musician George Gershwin, released by Warner Brothers. Robert Alda stars as Gershwin. Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Hazel Scott, and Anne Brown also star, while Irving Rapper directs. The film was released in the United States on September 22, 1945.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production background

Starring Robert Alda as Gershwin, the film features a few of Gershwin's acquaintances (including Paul Whiteman, Al Jolson, and Oscar Levant) playing themselves. Alexis Smith and Joan Leslie play fictional women in Gershwin's life, Morris Carnovsky and Rosemary De Camp play Gershwin's parents, and Herbert Rudley portrays his brother, Ira Gershwin. Levant also recorded most of the piano playing in the movie, and also dubbed Alda's piano playing. Both Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris are performed nearly completely, with the "Rhapsody in Blue" debut of 1924 orchestrated by Ferde Grofe and conducted, as it was originally, by Whiteman himself.

The film introduces two fictional romances into the story, one with a woman named Julie Adams, played by Leslie, and the other a near-romance with a rich society woman played by Smith.

The film notably features performances of Gershwin music by two African-American musicians/singers, Anne Brown and Hazel Scott. Both were child prodigies whose training included study at the Juilliard School. Brown, a soprano, created the role of "Bess" in the original production of Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. In the film, she sings the aria Summertime from Porgy and Bess, albeit rearranged, with the first verse sung by chorus only. Scott, who became known as a jazz and classical pianist and singer, was one of the first African-American women to have a career in Hollywood as well as television. She plays herself in the film, performing in a Paris nightclub.

Production

Irving Rapper felt it was "a rambling story, a little too sentimental at times, although written by some wonderful people, mainly Clifford Odets with far, far too much music." [3]

Rapper wanted Tyrone Power to play the lead but had to use Robert Alda. The director says apart from Alda's casting he was happy with the film. [3]

Reception

Contemporary reviews praised the music but had more mixed opinions about the plot. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film a "standard biography," explaining: "There is never any true clarification of what makes the gentleman run, no interior grasp of his nature, no dramatic continuity to his life. The whole thing unfolds in fleeting episodes, with characters viewing the genius with anxiety or awe, and the progression is not helped by many obvious and telescoping cuts. Throughout, the brilliant music of Mr. Gershwin is spotted abundantly, and that is the best—in fact, the only—intrinsically right thing in the film." [4] Variety reported that the film "can't miss" with "such an embarrassment of musical riches," to the point that "corny lapses" in the script "can easily be glossed over." [5] Harrison's Reports wrote that the musical score was "in itself worth the price of admission," while the film also offered "an inspiring, heart-warming story." [6] Wolcott Gibbs of The New Yorker called the music "magnificent", but criticized the plot as a "monumental collection of nonsense," describing the romance as "silly and tiresome." [7]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 20% of five critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10. [8] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [9]

Box office

According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $3.3 million domestically and $1.5 million overseas. [2]

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for the Grand Prize at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. [10] The film was also nominated for two Academy Awards; Academy Award for Best Original Score (Ray Heindorf and Max Steiner) and Best Sound Recording (Nathan Levinson). [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Gershwin</span> American composer and pianist (1898–1937)

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime".

<i>Rhapsody in Blue</i> 1924 composition by George Gershwin

Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects. Commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman and written by George Gershwin, the work premiered in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music" on February 12, 1924, in Aeolian Hall, New York City. Whiteman's band performed the rhapsody with Gershwin playing the piano. Whiteman's arranger Ferde Grofé orchestrated the rhapsody several times including the 1924 original scoring, the 1926 pit orchestra scoring, and the 1942 symphonic scoring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferde Grofé</span> American composer, arranger, pianist and instrumentalist (1892–1972)

Ferdinand Rudolph von Grofé, known as Ferde Grofé was an American composer, arranger, pianist, and instrumentalist. He is best known for his 1931 five-movement symphonic poem, Grand Canyon Suite, and for orchestrating George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for its 1924 premiere.

<i>Porgy and Bess</i> Opera by George Gershwin

Porgy and Bess is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar Levant</span> American comedian, musician and actor

Oscar Levant was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian, and actor. He had roles in the films Rhapsody in Blue (1945), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), An American in Paris (1951), and The Band Wagon (1953). He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for recordings featuring his piano performances. He was portrayed by Sean Hayes in the Broadway play Good Night, Oscar, written by Doug Wright. Levant appeared as himself in the Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945).

Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor and director Walter Damrosch. A full performance lasts around half an hour.

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Edwin DuBose Heyward was an American author best known for his 1925 novel Porgy. He and his wife Dorothy, a playwright, adapted it as a 1927 play of the same name. The couple worked with composer George Gershwin to adapt the work as the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. It was later adapted as a 1959 film of the same name.

<i>Blue Monday</i> (opera) Jazz opera by George Gershwin

Blue Monday was the original name of a one-act "jazz opera" by George Gershwin, renamed 135th Street during a later production. The English libretto was written by Buddy DeSylva. Though a short piece, with a running time of between twenty and thirty minutes, Blue Monday is often considered the blueprint to many of Gershwin's later works, and is often considered to be the "first piece of symphonic jazz" in that it was the first significant attempt to fuse forms of classical music such as opera with American popular music, with the opera largely influenced by Jazz and the African-American culture of Harlem.

<i>Porgy and Bess</i> (Miles Davis album) 1959 studio album by Miles Davis

Porgy and Bess is a studio album by the jazz musician Miles Davis, released in March 1959 on Columbia Records. The album features arrangements by Davis and collaborator Gil Evans from George Gershwin's 1935 opera of the same name. The album was recorded in four sessions on July 22, July 29, August 4, and August 18, 1958, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City. It is the second collaboration between Davis and Evans and has garnered much critical acclaim since its release, being acknowledged by some music critics as the best of their collaborations. Jazz critics have regarded the album as historically important.

Porgy and Bess, the opera by George Gershwin, has been recorded by a variety of artists since it was completed in 1935, including renditions by jazz instrumentalists and vocalists, in addition to operatic treatments.

<i>Porgy and Bess</i> (film) 1959 American musical film

Porgy and Bess is a 1959 American musical drama film directed by Otto Preminger, and starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge in the titular roles. It is based on the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, in turn based on Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy, as well as Heyward's subsequent 1927 non-musical stage adaptation, co-written with his wife Dorothy. The film's screenplay, which turned the operatic recitatives into spoken dialogue, was very closely based on the opera and was written by N. Richard Nash. In 2011, the film was chosen for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Catfish Row, originally titled Suite from Porgy and Bess, is an orchestral work by George Gershwin based upon music from his famous opera Porgy and Bess. Gershwin completed the work in 1936 and it premiered at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia on January 21 of that year, with Alexander Smallens conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. Gershwin played the piano part, including the piano solo in the opening moments. This piece preserves some of the darkest and most complex music Gershwin ever wrote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swanee (song)</span> 1919 song by George Gershwin and Irving Caesar

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References

  1. "Rhapsody in Blue". American Film Institute . Retrieved January 25, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1–31 p. 26 doi:10.1080/01439689508604551
  3. 1 2 Higham, Charles; Greenberg, Joel (1971). The celluloid muse; Hollywood directors speak . Regnery. p.  .
  4. Crowther, Bosley (June 28, 1945). "Movie Review – Rhapsody in Blue". The New York Times . Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  5. "Film Reviews". Variety . New York: Variety, Inc.: 16 June 27, 1945.
  6. "Harrison's Reports". June 30, 1945: 102.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. Gibbs, Wolcott (July 7, 1945). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker . New York: F-R Publishing Corp. p. 36.
  8. "Rhapsody in Blue". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved April 30, 2023. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  9. "Rhapsody in Blue". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  10. "Festival de Cannes: Rhapsody in Blue". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
  11. "The 18th Academy Awards (1946) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-16.