Words and Music is a 1948 American biographicalmusical film loosely based on the creative partnership of the composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. The film stars Mickey Rooney as Hart and Tom Drake as Rodgers, along with Janet Leigh, Betty Garrett, Ann Sothern and numerous musical stars. The film marks the final of 11 screen pairings of Rooney and Judy Garland, and their first since Girl Crazy in 1943. As with many similar biopics of the era, the story is heavily fictionalized, and many of Hart's personal issues are not mentioned.[4]
Aspiring lyricist Lorenz "Larry" Hart needs a composer for his music, so Herb Fields introduces him to Richard "Dick" Rodgers and a partnership is born in 1919. They struggle to achieve success, and Dick considers leaving the business to sell children's underwear.
Larry becomes impressed with singer Peggy Lorgan McNeil, personally and professionally. But when his and Dick's show is finally bound for Broadway, his promise to Peggy to play the starring role is ruined because the producer has already promised the part to his protégée Joyce Harmon. Dick is attracted to Joyce, but she rejects him as too young for her, and he is too old for young Dorothy Feiner. Larry proposes marriage to Peggy, who declines, and he falls into a depression. A string of hit songs and shows follow, but Larry seems unable to enjoy the success. Conflict within his partnership with Dick arises from Larry’s unreliability and frequent absences.
Larry's spirits are raised when Judy Garland agrees to star in a film with the music of Rodgers and Hart. Larry buys a home in California but falls back into melancholia, even after Dorothy marries Dick and invites Larry to share their home. Larry is hospitalized after collapsing at a party but surreptitiously leaves his hospital bed one night to attend a revival of their show A Connecticut Yankee on Broadway. He stands at the back and watches for a moment, then abruptly exits the theater in distress and collapses on the sidewalk. He is hospitalized but dies.
Ann Sothern, who plays Joyce Harmon in the film, had performed in Rodgers and Hart's America's Sweetheart on the Broadway stage in 1931 under her birth name of Harriette Lake.[5]
Maurice Chevalier was invited to sing two songs in the film, but the producers refused his demand for $100,000.[6] However, Judy Garland was extended a bonus of $50,000 for her performance.[7]
Production began in April 1948 and wrapped in July.[8]
The film was originally budgeted at $2,659,065.[9]
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote a blistering indictment of the film's biographical elements:
Fortunately, the wonderful music of Richard Rodgers and the late Lorenz Hart is treated with passable justice in ''Words and Music" ... Fortunately, too, the general public is not likely to be too much concerned about the actual whys and wherefores of these two popular song-writers' careers. Otherwise, this picture, which is supposed to celebrate this famous team, its music and activities, might be hooted right out of the house. For the painful fact ls that "Words and Music" ... is a patently juvenile specimen of musical biography, as far from the facts in its reporting as it is standard in its sentimental plot. And as much as it may be crowded with Metro's jostling boys and girls, who come bouncing in at odd moments to do their acts and disappear, it is played with fantastic incompetence by Tom Drake and Mickey Rooney in the principal roles. As played by Mr. Rooney, this deterioration of Mr. Hart deserves some sort of recognition as the year's prize grotesquery. From a bouncing, explosive little fellow who seems to drive everyone slightly nuts, Mr. Rooney suddenly slips into a grim, melancholic vein, for no other evident reason than that he has been jilted by a girl—by Miss Garrett, that is, whose only objection seems to be that the gentleman is a runt. And his florid flings at gay abandon, his puff-eyed pleas for sympathy and his final, groping trek from the hospital to the theatre (in the rain, of course) are among the most horribly inadequate and embarrassing things this reviewer has ever watched.[1]
Critic Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "'Words and Music' is described as 'based on the lives and music' of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The music and its rendition ... are generally just dandy. The 'lives,' even for MGM (which not too long ago presented us with the absurd spectacles of Robert Walker impersonating Johannes Brahms and Jerome Kern), hit—for me—a new low in evasion. distortion and all-'round dramatic ineptitude."[2]
The film earned $3,453,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,099,000 overseas, but because of its high cost, it recorded a loss of $371,000.[3][10]
The film was issued on DVD in 2007 by Warner Bros. with extras featuring video and audio outtakes,[13] including two songs deleted from the film sung by Perry Como: "Lover" and "You're Nearer".[14]
↑ Hopper, Hedda (1948-03-22). "Sothern Prima Donna; Music Score Challenge". Los Angeles Times. p.15.
↑ Graham, Sheilah (1948-03-26). "Dana Andrews Plays Schoolteacher; Burt Lancaster to Produce Comedy; Linda Darnell Fights for Time Off". Citizen-News. Hollywood, California. p.19.
↑ Graham, Sheilah (1948-03-25). "Three Award Winners Star in Film; Walker Denies Honeymoon Plans; Cummings Co-Starred With Loretta". Citizen-News. Hollywood, California. p.21.
↑ "DVD Talk". dvdtalk.com. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
↑ Macfarlane, Malcolm (2009). Perry Como - A Biography and Complete Career Record. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp.43–44. ISBN978-0-7864-3701-6.
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