Fresh and Exciting

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Fantastic!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Usually, musical biopics from the 1940s and 1950s aren't that great, but Words and Music isn't that bad. It's the history of the partnership between Richard Rodgers, played by Tom Drake, and Lorenz Hart, played by Mickey Rooney. It's chalk-full of over a dozen of their greatest hits, sung by a dozen different stars, so not only is it a treat for audiences to see an all-star cast together in one movie, but it's a sweet way for many singers to honor their legacy.Most of the movie focuses on Mickey Rooney, and if his characterization was true-to-life, I feel very sorry for Larry Hart, who had a sad and lonely life. If it weren't for the lovely songs, the movie might feel like too much of a downer. But, when Mickey Rooney sings "Manhattan," Judy Garland joins him for "I Wish I Were in Love Again," and Lena Horne performs "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "Where or When," it's hard to feel sad for very long.An extra treat is the dance number "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue," from the musical On Your Toes performed on an elaborate stage set by Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen. I'm a huge fan of both, and while I've always thought Vera-Ellen was beautiful, cute, and had an incredible figure, she wasn't really known for having much sex appeal. In this dance number, she must have taken lessons from Gene, because they are absolutely smoldering together. Her costume almost shows too much, and they seem connected by an invisible string as they give audiences a particularly boundary-pushing dance. Robert Alton's choreography more than makes up for June Allyson's song-I think the person who first told her she could sing must have been deaf-"Thou Swell."

After watching this one, the main reasons to watch this are the musical moments. Those moments are topped by -Lena Horne is great doing 2 numbers.Judy Garland with and without Mickey Rooney is great in 2 numbers.Perry Como is excellent too, though today's generation is wondering who Perry is pretty much?As far as the story, yes it is creative fiction making Mickey Rooney act depressed when the real reason for being depressed is that the real person he is based on is gay, but that fact can not be revealed in 1948. Actually Rooney is the only person in the cast to get an acting role pretty much. Everyone else is kind of just there.The party reveals this as you see a bunch of people hanging out until 4AM and then going home. They appear to be a bunch of aimless vagabonds who are just at the big party to be seen.This is a great power cast, and Norman Taurog is a solid director who did some interesting work with a lot of films. Here though, it is a sequence to sequence driven film with music carrying the day and night.This film proves entertainment can be produced with just music but a classic film needs a better script. Since Gay is taboo in 1948, that could not happen. Maybe in a guts check move, a major studio could try to do the true story in one of these from back then? No, I do not think a studio will try to do that unless they can find a way to make money. In today's films, making money is the story.This big budget MGM film is all about making money by using a super star cast and great music to celebrate peace, but does not have the freedom to tell the true tale.

In 1948, you couldn't make a biography of the true story of Lorenz Hart. That couldn't be done because of a little line in the Hays code that stated basically that any reference to homosexuality could not be presented on screen. So the very heterosexual Mickey Rooney was cast as Hart, and is still presented as troubled (insecure because of his height and lack of success with women, he turns to alcohol) while Tom Drake as Richard Rodgers is presented as very happily married and successful. That's basically all that happens, and in one of the lamest excuses for a guest appearance in a musical, Judy Garland (at 26 in 1948) meets Hart in a year when she was approximately 18 or 19, just so Rooney and Garland can share a duet.Certainly that duet ("I Wish I Were in Love Again") is magic, as is Judy's other song ("Johnny One Note"), but unlike "Till the Clouds Roll By" (where she portrayed Marilyn Miller), she isn't out of place dramatically and historically in the film. Yes, just two years before, we were all supposed to believe that Cary Grant was Cole Porter in "Night and Day", another mediocre musical biography saved only for its cast and its songs. So here, it's just a parade of Rodgers and Hart's best songs sung by MGM's top stars. You do get a full chance to see Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen perform the "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" ballet from "On Your Toes", June Allyson singin' up slang with "Thou Swell" in "A Connecticut Yankee", and Lena Horne in a nightclub singing "The Lady is a Tramp". Rooney figures out a clever way to introduce us to "Manhattan" (his lyrics basically scribbled all over a menu), while Perry Como ("Mountain Greenery") and Ann Sothern ("Where's That Rainbow"?) give us some obscure songs from forgotten Rodgers and Hart shows.Rooney does get a brief love interest with Betty Garrett's character (supposedly based upon a man in real life), the ending of which sets him up with despair. He puts too much emphasis on the energy in his performance so when his character falls all the way down to ultimate despair, it doesn't come off as true. Some of Rodgers and Hart's best songs are missing (especially some classics from their two best known shoes, "The Boys From Syracuse" and "Pal Joey") and the casting of the dramatic parts seems entirely uninspired. You'll find a lot to like musically in this film, but as a whole, the film has aged as one of MGM's great disappointments, an entirely missed opportunity.

The high score I've given this is purely for the musical numbers - 'On Your Toes', 'There's a Small Hotel', 'Johnny One Note', 'I Wish I Were In Love Again', 'On Your Toes', 'Blue Moon', 'A Blue Room', 'Mountain Greenery', and best of all, the dance sequence to 'Slaughter on 10th Avenue'. Performers showcased in this movie include Judy Garland, Perry Como, June Allyson, Betty Garrett, Cyd Charisse, Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen, who are all great.As Rodgers and Hart themselves, Tom Drake (a bit colourless) and Mickey Rooney (a bit manic) are passable, but the story has little to do with the reality of their lives. As a biopic, then, this film is laughable. But as a musical showcase, it works well.