Song o' My Heart | |
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Directed by | Frank Borzage |
Written by | Tom Barry Sonya Levien |
Produced by | Frank Borzage |
Starring | John McCormack Alice Joyce Maureen O'Sullivan |
Cinematography | Chester A. Lyons J.O. Taylor |
Edited by | Margaret Clancey |
Music by | George Lipschultz |
Production company | Fox Film Corporation |
Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date | September 7, 1930 |
Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1.2 million [1] |
Song o' My Heart is a 1930 Pre-Code American film directed by Frank Borzage and starring John McCormack, Alice Joyce, Maureen O'Sullivan, Effie Ellsler and John Garrick. It was O'Sullivan's second film role.
The film was double-shot in both conventional 35mm and the early 70 mm Grandeur film widescreen format. Very few theaters were equipped with the necessary projection equipment to show it in the latter and it was never released in that format.
Sean O'Carolon has retired as an Irish tenor to a village where an old love of his, Mary, resides with her children, Eileen and Tad. A once-famous opera singer, Sean has given up his career to live in his old Irish village, near Mary, who had been forced to marry someone else "for money, not love". Mary, now abandoned and with two children, struggles in poverty, and lives in the home of a horrid relation. Sean decides to resume his career as a concert singer, presumably (but not stated) to help Mary and perhaps resume their relationship. On tour in America, however, Sean learns that Mary has died. He decides to cut short his tour and return to Ireland to support Mary's children, and Eileen's marriage to her true love.
Edwin Schneider, McCormack's real piano accompanist, plays the part of Sean's piano accompanist in the film. A lengthy segment of the movie is given over to an actual concert, purportedly in New York City but actually filmed on location in Philharmonic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, a massive auditorium of the old "Hippodrome" variety.
The director, Frank Borzage, was the Academy Award winner for direction in 1927 ( Seventh Heaven ).
Maureen O'Sullivan was an Irish actress who played Jane in the Tarzan series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. She starred in dozens of feature films across a span of more than half a century and performed with such actors as Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo, Fredric March, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, the Marx Bros. and Woody Allen. In 2020, she was listed at number eight on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
James Travis Reeves was an American country and popular music singer and songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death in a plane crash. He is a member of both the Country Music and Texas Country Music Halls of Fame.
Gerald Moore CBE was an English classical pianist best known for his career as a collaborative pianist for many distinguished musicians. Among those with whom he was closely associated were Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schumann, Hans Hotter, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Victoria de los Ángeles and Pablo Casals.
John Francis McCormack, KSG, KSS, KHS, was an Irish lyric tenor celebrated for his performances of the operatic and popular song repertoires, and renowned for his diction and breath control. He was also a Papal Count. McCormack became a naturalised American citizen before returning to live in Ireland.
Frank Borzage was an American film director and actor. He was the first person to win the Academy Award for Best Director for his film 7th Heaven (1927) at the 1st Academy Awards.
Gilbert O'Sullivan is an Irish singer-songwriter who achieved commercial success and popularity during the early 1970s with his hit songs "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Clair" and "Get Down". O'Sullivan's songs are often marked by his distinctive percussive piano playing style and observational lyrics using wordplay.
Dónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician and producer. He plays guitar and bouzouki, as well as keyboards and bodhrán. As a founding member of popular bands Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Coolfin, Mozaik, LAPD, and Usher's Island, he has been at the forefront of the renaissance of Irish traditional music for over five decades.
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Frank McNamara is an internationally known arranger, conductor, composer, and pianist from Ireland.
Carl Gilbert Hardebeck or Carl G. Hardebec was a British-born Irish composer and arranger of traditional music.
Richard Hageman was a Dutch-born American conductor, pianist, and composer.
Arthur O'Sullivan, also known as Archie O'Sullivan, was an Irish actor who appeared on stage, screen and radio.
Geoffrey Penwill Parsons AO OBE was an Australian pianist, most particularly notable as an accompanist to singers and instrumentalists. After the retirement of Gerald Moore, he was generally considered the world's finest and most sympathetic accompanist of lieder singers, "elevating the role of the accompanist to new heights with his musicality, authority and quiet strength of playing".
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Johnnie Spence, born John Spence Abrahams, sometimes spelt Johnny Spence, was a British musical arranger, director, and orchestra leader. He is credited with the arrangements and musical direction of numerous records and television light entertainment works throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction of a Variety, Musical or Dramatic Program for his work on the 1969 television series This Is Tom Jones.
Mick Hanly is an Irish singer and composer from Limerick. In the 1970s, he formed several folk music duos, first with Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, then with Andy Irvine and, more recently, with Dónal Lunny. From 1982 until 1985, he was a member of Moving Hearts. Hanly is known for composing "Past the Point of Rescue", which was first covered by Mary Black (1988) and also by American artist Hal Ketchum (1991).
William Alexander Houston Collisson was an Anglo-Irish priest, writer, organist, pianist, impresario, and composer, mainly remembered for his long collaboration with Percy French.