In 1951, MGM had something of a megahit with its biopic entitled "The Great Caruso," which depicted the life story of the great Italian operatic tenor. The film was produced for around $2 million and pulled in a whopping $10 million at the box office. The following year, a rival studio, 20th Century Fox, had something of a huge success with its biopic entitled "With a Song in My Heart," which told the story of American singer Jane Froman, and her comeback after being crippled in an airplane disaster. Perhaps heartened by the success of these two recent ventures, MGM, on March 25, 1955, released what it hoped would be another success along those same lines, with its splashy production of "Interrupted Melody." This film told the story of Australian opera singer Marjorie Lawrence, of her swift climb to success beginning in 1932, of the polio that stalled her career, and of her eventual glorious comeback. Based on Lawrence's 1949 autobiography of the same name, the film was given the deluxe treatment, with lavish CinemaScope and Eastman Color. Produced for $2.3 million, it was only a modest box office success, however, eventually garnering $4 million in ticket sales. It is a film that I had been meaning to see for many years, huge fan as I am of its leading lady, Eleanor Parker, and indeed, it was the only major film in Parker's filmography that I had not thus far experienced; a serious omission, especially inasmuch as a framed portrait of Parker from this film hangs in my foyer here at home. Still, I was reluctant to see this picture, and for one reason: I am not a fan of opera at all. As I believe I mentioned in my review of the wonderful Dario Argento horror film "Opera," many folks over the years have tried to turn me on to this musical genre, and all of them have failed. Opera, for me, had always meant a fat lady in a Viking helmet yodeling away at full blast, or a bearded guy or off-putting prima donna shrilling away in a language that I am unfamiliar with and thus could never appreciate. Still, the music in "Opera" had been strangely appealing to me, wonder of wonders, and so, I manfully sat down the other night, on the occasion of what would have been Ms. Parker's 98th birthday, and hoped for the best. And you know what? I wound up quite enjoying the film...long operatic segments and all! Perhaps there is hope for me yet!
"Interrupted Melody" cleaves fairly evenly into two discrete parts. In the first, we learn of how Lawrence won a singing audition in her native Winchelsea, Australia, and got to thus study in Paris under the tutelage of the famed Cecile Gilly. We see how she quickly became a prima donna in the opera houses of various French provinces, eventually performing in Paris. In the south of France, she meets the American doctor of medicine, Thomas King (Glenn Ford, who insisted on top billing for this film, strangely enough--Parker generously assented in the interests of getting the film made--and whose film "The Blackboard Jungle" was also released on 3/25/55!), who would eventually become her husband. After their marriage and Lawrence's relocation to the States, we see the troubles that the two encountered in their marriage, primarily due to their conflicting schedules and Lawrence's extended tours away from home. It is in the film's second half, however, that things really grow interesting, when Marjorie collapses during a 1941 South American tour and is diagnosed with polio. In this grueling segment, we see the diva confined to a wheelchair in Florida, where the two have moved in order to effect a convalescence. Lawrence slowly loses her will to live, even attempting suicide at one point ("You're a doctor...help me to die," she pleads to King), only to find a new meaning in her life when she overcomes her embarrassment of being seen in a wheelchair, and begins to perform for the WW2 troops overseas. Her comeback reaches its culmination at the Met in NYC, with Lawrence performing Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde," to the thunderous ovation of its awestruck audience....
Marjorie Lawrence would later tell reporters that she was unhappy with the filmization of her autobiography, and that it was an unfaithful telling of her life story. I cannot answer to that, not being anything like a fan of the singer or knowledgeable about the actual details of her life. I can only tell you my reactions to what we have been given here. And thus, I CAN report that the film will surely prove touching even to those who are not a fan of the diva or the operatic style itself. It is a terrifically acted film, and Parker and Ford work very well together. Parker was deservedly nominated for her third Oscar for her work here, ultimately "losing" to Anna Magnani for her terrific performance in "The Rose Tattoo." (Not for nothing, but I would have given the statue that year to Susan Hayward, for her incredible performance in "I'll Cry Tomorrow," another biopic, this one dealing with actress Lillian Roth.) The two leads are ably abetted by Roger Moore, here in his second film (following his debut in 1954's "The Last Time I Saw Paris"), and playing the part of Marjorie's brother Cyril, who later became her manager. The great character actor Cecil Kellaway, who plays Lawrence's father back in Australia, is essentially wasted in a part that gives him perhaps two minutes of screen time. Director Curtis Bernhardt, who had previously directed Bette Davis in "A Stolen Life," Audrey Totter in "The High Wall," Joan Crawford in "Possessed" and Humphrey Bogart in "Sirocco," here elicits a few more wonderful performances from his players, while the film's script, by Sonya Levien (1939's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," 1945's"State Fair" and that same year's "Oklahoma") and William Ludwig, would go on to cop that year's Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. (Wait...this script was based on Lawrence's autobiography, so shouldn't that have been "Best Adapted Screenplay"?) The picture features any number of touching moments of great dramatic weight, including Marjorie's first attempts to crawl across the floor after her paralysis; Lawrence singing for the first time in public from a wheelchair, when she performed "Over the Rainbow" in a veterans hospital; and, of course, that opening at the Met, singing for the first time in a major production after her polio diagnosis. This is a film, by the way, that would probably work better when experienced on the large screen, rather than watched on a 40" flat-screen TV, as I took it in the other night. Its wide-screen image and lush color would probably look fantastic when seen in a theatrical setting. Still, even when experienced at home, it manages to impress with its sumptuous production detail and extravagant costumes.
And then there are those opera bits themselves, which I had thought would be a stumbling block for me. And this film dishes out any number of them, especially in its first half. Thus, we get to see Lawrence perform selections from Verdi's "Don Carlos" and "Il Trovatore," Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," Bizet's "Carmen" and Wagner's "Gotterdammerung," among others. And please don't ask me which pieces are performed here; I DID mention that I am a complete opera dunce, didn't I? These opera selections are convincingly performed by Parker, who supposedly sang the pieces while performing, being a huge opera buff herself as well as a pretty darn decent singer in her own right, by all reports...although her voice was ultimately dubbed by the America soprano Eileen Farrell. The net result is very convincing, however, and fans of the great actress will love seeing her dressed in gypsy, geisha and Valkyrie attire as she performs these various numbers. Parker, who would go on to be proclaimed "The Woman of a Thousand Faces," for her great facility for portraying many different types of character on screen, fearlessly tackling anything the studio threw at her, was on something of a roll at this point in her career. Later that same year, she would appear in the hugely entertaining Western "Many Rivers to Cross," opposite Robert Taylor, as well as the part of another cripple (or rather, supposed cripple), Zosh Machine, opposite Frank Sinatra, in the hard-hitting film "The Man With the Golden Arm." She was not Lawrence's first choice for the one who would portray her on film (that was Greer Garson), and indeed, the casting process for the picture's lead would turn out to be a lengthy one, with Kathryn Grayson, Lana Turner and Deborah Kerr all being considered at some point. But one cannot help but feel that the filmmakers ultimately made the correct decision with Parker, an actress who was not only stunningly beautiful (her flaming red hair in that Eastman Color really is something to behold), and who could act rings around just about any of her peers, but who, as I mentioned, actually knew quite a bit about opera and could convincingly portray a diva in full-throated mode. She is just terrific here, in a role that required so very much of her thesping abilities. Brava!
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