Best movie of this year hands down!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Because You're Mine is a little disappointing after The Great Caruso, Mario Lanza's best film and one that was even better on re-watch(even if it wasn't perfect either), but it still has many fine merits.The music and Lanza's singing are particularly good here. The operatic excerpts from Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, L'Africaine and Cavalleria Rusticana are masterpieces in themselves, and there's also a great rendition of Granada, the charming duet Because You're Mine and the welcome reappearance of Be My Love. Lanza is in sensational voice, his vocal production sounding easy and with a bright ring and he sings with sensitive phrasing and a good range of musicality, even if the emotion doesn't translate in his acting skills his singing has it aplenty. Because You're Mine looks absolutely glorious, being shot in lavish Technicolour while the sets are colourful and the costumes filled with charm. In supporting roles, a very funny and charming James Whitmore and sparkling Spring Byington stand out.Doretta Morrow, apart from singing beautifully, is a less-than-winning partner for Lanza. She looks miserable and displays no chemistry with Lanza, the two hated each other and it shows in a chemistry that is even colder than that between Lanza and Kathryn Grayson in The Toast from New Orleans. While Lanza's singing is superb, his acting is some of his stiffest and least natural-looking for any of his films, his comic timing is very flat and somewhat heavy, and when he does try to be funny it comes over as forced. To be honest, the way some of the comedy is written here doesn't help matters either; it sparkles with Whitmore and Byington but is very obvious and banal with Lanza and everybody else. The story is wafer-thin and painfully predictable, even for a film starring Lanza, lacks crispness pace-wise and also lays it rather thick with the schmaltz. And while Bobby Van's dance routine was very winningly danced and niftily choreographed, it served no point to the story and had little reason, if any at all, for being there.In summary, worth seeing for the music and Lanza, but a let-down after The Great Caruso and one of his weaker films overall. 5.5/10 Bethany Cox

With Kathryn Grayson refusing to work with him again, Mario Lanza has a new leading lady in "Because You're Mine," a 1952 film which also stars Doretta Morrow, James Whitmore, Paula Corday, Jeff Donnell, and Spring Byington. Lanza is a great opera star, Renaldo Rossano, who gets drafted into the army. Fortunately for him, his commanding officer, Sgt. Batterson (Whitmore) is a fan, so Rossano has it pretty easy. Batterson is also trying to promote his sister as a singer. Renaldo falls for her. His prima donna back at the opera house (Paula Corday) will have something to say about that.Broadway star Doretta Morrow is perky, and while not as pretty as Grayson, sings beautifully. Lanza was not very nice to her - that's putting it mildly - but apparently eventually apologized. Unhappy making this film after his triumphant "The Great Caruso," Lanza gained weight throughout the film so he's trim in one scene and chunky the next. It's a shame he felt that way - the film is pleasant enough, and he sings like a dream, doing a segment from "Il Trovatore," the "Addio" from "Rigoletto," the end of "Cavalleria Rusticana," the "Our Father," the title song, "Because You're Mine," and a very impressive "Granada." Not only does he impress with his glorious high notes, he does some very lyrical and soft singing as well.James Whitmore moves into the comedy of his role easily, and Spring Byington is delightful as a general's wife who needs Renaldo to sing at a reception.Very pleasant and a must for opera and Lanza fans.

Lanza's character is inducted into the Army and undergoes basic training, during a season in which the summer uniform was prescribed. Normal summer "Class A" uniform for a private would have been a long-sleeved cotton khaki shirt with tie (tucked in between second and third buttons of shirt) and matching trousers, heavily starched (but no jacket or blouse). As an option, purchased at their own cost and only authorized for off-duty purposes, enlisted men could purchase an officer's summer Class A uniform, comprising shirt and tie in a tropical worsted material, topped with a jacket. Perhaps ten senior NCOs ever did this, of course. They and Lanza's character: the jacket hides a multitude of sins (and fat rolls), so Lanza's buck private is the best dressed enlisted man in the lower 48 during most of his military scenes. And he often looks as if he could play two NFL line positions simultaneously!

Because You're Mine was Mario Lanza's fourth movie, and was much criticised on its release as artistically a step backwards for the celebrated tenor. Certainly, coming straight after The Great Caruso it suffers badly in comparison with that considerable achievement, but is Because You're Mine really THAT bad?Actually, this is a fun movie. It lacks the polish of That Midnight Kiss and the sheer high spirits of Toast of New Orleans, but vocally at least this film has more going for it than either of those two movies. Highlights include a definitive Granada (in a key one and a half tones higher than the Three Tenors have ever dared to attempt!), a moving Lord's Prayer and several pleasing operatic and popular selections. My only regret is that All the Things You Are was inexplicably cut from the movie. One of Lanza's loveliest recordings, it was recently restored on the Mario Lanza at MGM soundtrack CD released by Rhino.The film also boasts a fine co-star in James Whitmore, who provides much of the movie's comic relief, and a pleasant leading lady in Doretta Morrow of the Broadway Kismet fame. She's no great shakes as a singer, but then - unlike Kathryn Grayson in the earlier movies - she isn't meant to be.Lanza hated making this movie, and did his best to sabotage it, gaining a huge amount of weight in the vain hope that this would discourage the producers from going ahead with it. As a result, Lanza's weight varies from 240 pounds to 159 pounds (often in successive scenes), a distracting but intriguing sight.But none of this need detract from your enjoyment of a pleasant movie that includes some agreeable singing from the finest tenor of his generation. And you can always watch Serenade (Lanza's next movie) straight after it for a reminder of what this man could do with a much meatier tale.