The story is pretty ridiculous but its all presented lushly with all the big studio trimmings. Gorgeous locations in sumptuous Technicolor and a top flight cast all doing good work. Mario is in fine voice even if he doesn't look his best and sings many beautiful songs full of vigor. The script requires more acting than usually asked of him and he pulls it off well enough although no one would ever mistake him for Olivier. Joan Fontaine checks in with the silky brand of villainy that became her stock in trade once her sweet ingénue phase came abruptly to an end sometime after Letter from an Unknown Woman. Did any actress have a more dramatic change of persona than she from dewy vulnerability to brittle hard edged sophistication in so short a time? Anyway she looks incredible and is a fine balance to the breathtaking beauty of Sarita Montiel. The other standout in the cast is Vincent Price in a part that had anybody else with less flair played it would have been nothing. With the sly humor in his voice he makes his lines memorable and walks off with any scene he's in. If you're a fan of any of the stars well worth the time.
Add a Review
-
jjnxn-131 January 2013
-
Bunuel197627 May 2011This was the fourth of just 7 starring vehicles for turbulent Italian tenor Mario Lanza; although not his best or most popular (that remains 1951's THE GREAT CARUSO), Anthony Mann was easily the best director he ever had. It was actually Lanza's first film in 4 years, a period marked by the debacle of THE STUDENT PRINCE (1954) where director Curtis Bernhardt decided he had had enough of the star's tantrums, had him summarily fired and replaced by Edmund Purdom (who mimed to Lanza's own singing)!
Anyway, the screenplay here is so predictable that it seems written on autopilot and one is hard-pressed to believe that it was based on a novel penned by hard-boiled noir writer James M. Cain; it comes as no surprise, then, to learn that the film version was heavily bowdlerized! Incidentally, Cain was also behind similar musical soap opera stuff like WHEN TOMORROW COMES (1939) and its remake INTERLUDE (1957) that had equally boasted the services of notable directors (John M. Stahl and Douglas Sirk, respectively) for their transition to the screen! On a personal note, it is unfortunate that, while respected Maltese character actor Joseph Calleia got to work with two of Hollywood's most talented film-makers of that time within the same year, it was only on their least interesting movies: this and Nicholas Ray's HOT BLOOD!; what is even worse is that another Maltese who goes by the name of Joseph Calleia is currently enjoying worldwide fame as a tenor himself - thus endangering his earlier namesake (who died back in 1975)'s own fledgling reputation on his home ground!
The supporting cast of SERENADE is quite good actually: Joan Fontaine (she has the right looks for the role of the bitchy society dame who entraps Lanza in her tangled web but there is next to no chemistry between them!), Sarita Montiel (Mann's wife at the time, she has the role of Lanza's beautiful Mexican redeemer), Vincent Price (a breath of fresh air as the witty, artless impresario), Silvio Minciotti (as Lanza's first restaurateur employer), Vince Edwards (as Fontaine's temperamental prize-fighting pet) and Edward Platt (as the director of Lanza's ill-fated stage debut performance of "Othello" – which he hysterically abandons in mid-aria simply because Fontaine has not turned up to see him!). Similarly histrionic moments occur during a thunderstorm in the Mexican plains (almost evoking John Ford's THE QUIET MAN {1952}!) and when a jealous Montiel (incidentally, she has her own jilted lover to contend with!) loses it by bullfighting a mocking Fontaine at a society party that precipitates an unbelievably contrived climactic traffic accident (with an inevitable happy outcome just as Lanza is about to go live on the airwaves)! To counter such melodramatic (if appropriately operatic) outbursts, perhaps the film's best sequence is the simple and moving one in which Lanza and Montiel enter a Mexican church to pray, and it is here that he regains his self-confidence (having spent some time on the skids and then returned to his roots as a field-worker!) by singing Schubert's "Ave Maria".
Apart from the afore-mentioned "Othello", the film also shows Lanza performing a famous aria from Giuseppe Verdi's "Il Trovatore" (incidentally, I have just acquired Renato Castellani's 10½-hour biopic of the famed Italian composer shot in 1982 for Italian TV with Ronald Pickup in the lead!), as well as 2 new songs in English (one of them 'composed' and played on the piano by Vincent Price and the title tune, which is reprised for the finale). Having mentioned the English numbers just now, it is odd given his proud heritage that, when Lanza is about to leave home early on in search of success (managed by his cousin Harry Bellaver), he treats his paisani to a pop tune – and in a foreign tongue, to boot! By the way, this viewing came via a TCM U.K. broadcast of the Warner Bros. production (albeit screened full-frame). -
Continuing with corrections, admonishments on spurious opinions, etc.
peters159-1 - "....he had only 18 minutes of voice. He could not sustain it in a full scale opera" is absolute nonsense. He had already sung in complete opera performances (THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR and MADAMA BUTTERFLY), done some 80 cross-country concerts with the Bel Canto Trio (with George London and Frances Yeend), and for the last several years of his life gave concerts that would have included a minimum of about 60 minutes of singing (more than in most tenor roles in the standard opera repertory), one of them the Royal Albert Hall concert that was issued by RCA Victor while he was still alive. Even worse is this reviewer's allegation that Lanza was killed by Mafia types. This has long been discredited, and had no basis in even suspicion to begin with; just someone making up a new 'hook' with which to sell a book. Lanza was extremely sick with half a dozen ailment, the worst of which was a bad heart. Given the way he lived, you could almost justify a claim that he unknowingly committed suicide. But he was NOT murdered by the Mafia or anyone else!
Neil Doyle - Schubert's "Ave Maria" is hardly rendered in "ringing tones". In fact, just the opposite.
TheLittleSongbird - Actually, the OTELLO Monologue is not at all very heavy stuff for Lanza to take on. The first half is mostly done in half-voice on the same note, the aria never rises beyond B-flat, and it is actually quite easy to sing except for the very end. (The whole role lies low, which is why so many famous Otellos - Zenatello, Zanelli, Melchior, Schmedes, Guichandut, Vinay to name a few - had successful professional careers as baritones before switching up to tenor to be able to sing the relatively low-lying Otello and/or the Wagner tenor repertoire, most of which lies similarly low; indeed, every second Wagnerian tenor in history seems to have had a second career in OTELLO.) The hard part of it is getting the proper emotion into those semi-parlando passages, and Lanza manages to do this pretty well without being in any way outstanding when compared to the great Otellos. It is not to denigrate him when I say I could easily name 30 or 40 equal or superior versions while still liking his. But to hear a Martinelli Met broadcast of this piece, or Melchior's German-language performance, or Zenatello's Fonotipia recording and comparing any one of them to Lanza's would be as unfair as would be comparing Olivier's King Lear to one by John Wayne.
artzau - "His music was marginal, his phrasing and articulation shoddy" is pure nonsense - possibly received opinion from snobs. There was nothing marginal about his musicality (which is, I assume, what was meant), and his phrasing and articulation were excellent in Italian, French and Spanish, and damned near miraculous in English. Indeed, his clarity of diction in the English language far surpasses that of any other classical-trained singer I know of, even John McCormack's (who was a paragon of virtue in this respect, but managed to sing all languages with a brogue!). His only equal in this respect is Eileen Farrell, but she had to dispense with her legitimate soprano voice and assume a completely chest-based popular singing style that seems as much modeled on Judy Garland's as on any other pop singer who comes to mind. But when Farrell sings English in classical song or in the few opera excerpts she ever did in English, she is not at all clear in her enunciation. Some other classically trained singers come close - like Robert Merrill - but there is always something about their sound, even in popular music, that sounds 'classical'. When Lanza sings Kern or Rodgers or Berlin or Herbert, we hear a full operatic tenor voice that makes the lyrics totally clear in plain, old-fashioned, non-rolled 'r' and broad 'a' pronunciation, so that it still sounds like a popular or Broadway song, and not a piece being done by some opera singer who is slumming (think Richard Crooks). Kathy Jurado never existed. If you mean Katy Jurado, she did exist, but was not in this film. I won't argue opinions, except to say that your comment about "how bad he was as an opera singer" was not and is not shared by the many opera singers he sang with - George London, Frances Yeend, Lucine Amara, Dorothy Kirsten, and especially Licia Albanese and Elaine Malbin. I see Ms. Malbin every three months at the quarterly Mario Lanza Luncheon, held at Patsy's Italian Restaurant (Sinatra's favorite go-to place in New York City); she still raves about him, as did both Lucine Amara and Licia Albanese, when they used to attend the luncheons.
Well, that's it, and I hope I haven't hurt anyone's feelings in expressing my own. But the subject of Opera is a vast one, and often you really do have to submerge your life into it to really understand that vastness. One can call Lanza this, that and the next thing, but what does it matter if one's standards of comparison are incomplete? Leo Slezak (father of Walter) was the greatest Middle-European tenor of the first 30 years of the last century, holding a place there fully equal to that held by Caruso in this country. Caruso was not all that popular in Italy and rarely sang there after coming to the Met. Melchior is universally regarded as the greatest Wagnerian tenor of all time, but if your exposure to him is only through M-G-M films, you haven't even started to understand his greatness. You may have heard Caruso and Melchior, but probably not Slezak, so what's the point of pontificating on who was the greatest tenor of the century until you have. And then there are about two or three hundred other tenors I might mention. The point is, don't worry about it, and just go about enjoying Lanza for what he was - to my mind, possessor of the most beautiful lyric tenor voice America has ever produced.
As for the film, well, if you seen the dozen or more films made by both Beniamino Gigli and Richard Tauber, and the half-dozen or so made by Jan Kiepura and Joseph Schmidt, it will enable you to more easily appreciate what M-G-M gave us from the Eddy/MacDonald era through Grayson to Lanza, and ending with INTERRUPTED MELODY, and what Warners at least tried to give us in their Grace Moore biopic, SO THIS IS LOVE and with SERENADE, maybe America's last gasp at including Opera in America's standard screen culture. -
lanzafan14 May 2002I cannot condone the fact that Mario was substandard in this film. He had been under the restrictions of an MGM ban, before Warners offered him a chance to return to the filmworld. He was naturally nervous (it shows in some of the scenes) as he had not worked for about three years and his voice was taking on a darker hue. Yes, he was a little overweight, but his singing was superb. He could sing anything and did, with complete conviction. His operatic arias in this film are superb and those of us who are lucky enough to have heard the outtakes from the soundtrack will agree that he was coming to terms with the fact that he had to adjust to his voice getting bigger. It was a really awesome instrument. The power was immense, but he could also sing falsetto when required. His "Ave Maria" in this film is one of the most moving I have ever heard. A good effort by him to re-establish himself and his fans will bear me out. To hell with the plot - listen to the voice of the century.
-
whatsupomar9 October 2017At this time it is very easy to pan this outrageously inept rendition of the James M. Cain groundbreaking novel. People forget that back in 1955 it would have been impossible to film "Serenade" as written by the author. You can also say that Anthony Mann was not the ideal director for this kind of musical melodrama since he was more at home in the film noir and western genres. In spite of all that, "Serenade" is not a bad movie and can be enjoyed by all but most specially by opera lovers. Mario Lanza is mesmerizing singing some of the world's most beloved music. In my opinion he was never more effective as a singer than on this Warner Bros Technicolor production. As an actor Mr. Lanza has some good and bad moments playing Damon, the humble California vineyard worker who achieves fame and fortune only to be destroyed by his obsessive passion for beautiful socialite Kendall Hale (Joan Fontaine) who enjoys making stars out of her lovers and then dropping them for the next hopeful in line. When he hits rock bottom in Mexico he is rescued and rehabilitated by a wealthy bullfighter's daughter, the earthy and also beautiful Juana Montes (Sarita Montiel). When Damon goes back to the U.S. with Juana to re-launch his career, Miss Hale shows up again with every intention to manipulate the singer once more. Will she succeed? All that mayhem is worthy just to listen to Lanza's glorious voice sing with outstanding gusto "Torna a Sorrento", a most moving "Ave Maria" (Schubert) or Puccini's "Nessum Dorma" from "Turandot". As both a singer and an actor Lanza is particularly effective in his rendition of Verdi's "Dio Ti Giocondi" from "Othello", doubtless one of the artist's best moments in film. I find the supporting cast brilliant with special mentions going to Vincent Price as the sarcastic, witty opera manager and the gorgeous Sarita as the temperamental Juana.
-
Mario Lanza, at the age of 34, was a complete mess - bloated from drinking, overweight, and making a film comeback of sorts. Though his voice had been heard in "The Student Prince," he hadn't appeared in a film in four years. "Serenade," based on the novel by James Cain, minus the gay love affair, was the vehicle to return him to the screen. Cain was a great lover of opera and incorporated it into this novel and also into the novel Mildred Pierce.
Lanza plays Damon, a vineyard worker with a golden voice who is discovered by a socialite, Kendall Hale (Joan Fontaine) who sets him up with a major voice teacher. With the help of Kendall and those around her, Damon is given a star buildup. The only problem is, Kendall is someone who encourages artists and then dumps them. Damon is in love with her, and on the night of his debut (we assume at the Met) singing Otello (a good choice for the story, but he never would have sung it until he was in his fifties at a minimum, if at all), she doesn't show up. He is so obsessed with her that right before he strangles Desdemona, he walks off stage, removes his costume and makeup, and goes to Kendall's place. What an idiot. His career in tatters, he goes to Mexico City and gets a job as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. But he's having a nervous breakdown. (No wonder - the role is completely wrong for him.)
Damon winds up ill and is brought back to health by a family which includes Juana (Sarita Monteil). With her help, Damon gradually feels strong enough to try singing again. But can he?
Lanza had a beautiful natural voice. Technique wasn't his strong suit -he scooped a lot and tended to oversing - but he brought opera to the common man. Before him, opera singers in films had been divas and divos - Jeanette MacDonald, Grace Moore et al. - but Lanza always played the truck driver with the beautiful voice. There were comments here on this site that his voice had darkened - frankly, at 34, that shouldn't have happened yet. As a person ages (we're talking 40s and 50s here) the vocal cords thicken and often, the middle voice warms up and becomes stronger, and some of the top goes.
Joan Fontaine, at nearly 40, was a stunning woman with a beautiful, slim figure. At this point in her career, she was playing the society woman, often in roles too young for her, as in "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt." But the sweet, naive girl of Rebecca had turned into the rich woman with an educated speaking voice and cool looks. Unlike other actresses of her age, Fontaine managed to eek out more years in good films than some of her counterparts because of this change in image. She does a great job as the cold Kendall. As Juana, Sarita Monteil is beautiful and her passion and intensity are a great contrast to Fontaine. The gowns in the film were gorgeous for both women.
Mario Lanza was a tragic figure, possessed of a beautiful voice and a natural tendency toward stockiness. Due to the pressure on him to lose weight, his crash dieting and drinking eventually affected his heart. In fact, there was nothing wrong with his appearance or his very likable, relaxed screen presence. But, as with Judy Garland, Louis B couldn't leave it alone. Lanza was a problematic individual, difficult to work with and someone who sexually harassed his female costars. He was his own worst enemy, but what a legacy. -
bkoganbing2 February 2012For his one and only film away from an MGM release, Mario Lanza went to Warner Brothers in 1956 to star in a film adaption of James M. Cain's novel Serenade. It's the story of an opera singer discovered and then abandoned by society girl Joan Fontaine and then redeemed by the love of a good woman played by Mexican film star Sarita Montiel.
James M. Cain was an author who had given the screen a few classic films from his work like Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and The Postman Always Rings Twice. But Cain was unable to give the screen anything more than a turgid melodrama with Serenade. It was not in the class as a novel or a film as those other three works.
However one watches a Mario Lanza film to hear him sing and he's in good voice with the usual mixture of classical opera, Italian folk songs, and a pair of new songs by Nicholas Brodzsky and Sammy Cahn who had already given him Be My Love and Because You're Mine. Mario sings the title song and My Destiny from Brodzsky and Cahn and they're good, but not in the league with those two other classics identified with him. My favorite out of the score is La Danza which is sung toward the beginning of the film. Lanza did an outstanding record of this as did his idol Enrico Caruso in the early days of commercial recording.
The Code was still firmly in place or Vincent Price's character as the opera impresario would be more obviously gay. As it is Price gets the best lines in the film and makes the most of them.
If watching Serenade I'd fast forward to Mario's songs and listen to them. They're what gives Serenade any lasting popularity. -
verna-a30 May 2020"Serenade" is the seventh and final Mario Lanza film I have reprised recently and my least favourite. This is not what I had expected as many critics say it has greater dramatic stature and complexity that his other, more lightweight films. Serenade is a typical drama of its time, rather cheesy and unconvincing really as it lacks realism. It does allow Lanza to emote freely, which he does most convincingly in his "Otello" costume after having given utterance to some splendidly dramatic singing. The singing, which is after all the raison d'etre of the film, is plentiful and enjoyable. I thought Joan Fontaine was fine as the ultra-smooth and rather serpent-like Kendall. I did not like Sarita Montiel, she projected a rather sulky and arrogant quality and I was afraid Mario might impale himself on her super-pointy bazooms. But my chief discomfort was Lanza's appearance. Much is made of his weight fluctuation during this and some other movies, but it's not so much the bulk of his body that is the concern as his really fat, puffy cheeks, widening his face and squeezing his eyes. They do not go well with his chiselled nose, lips and chin. In some sections of footage he looks better than others, but altogether it is quite distressing. In his final two films he does not look so unhealthy, ironic when you consider that his premature death was even closer. The film has glamorous and colourful settings to enjoy, so together with the singing and some capable supporting actors complementing the principals, it seems a bit mean to rate it only a six, but that's my feeling overall.
-
enofan515 June 2020And that applies to the acting and singing. Stupefyingly awful film and performances.
-
I saw this with an opera-loving friend when it came out in early 1956, and even then, our 17-year-old selves thought it was pretty hokey. Which did not stop us for one minute from each going out and purchasing the LP soundtrack, to which I still listen to this day. The problem with opera-based films, and especially with opera-based films starring Mario Lanza, is that there are usually two factions at work - 1) those who can't stand the fact that arguably the greatest lyric tenor voice of its time was 'misused' and hardly entered the legitimate realms of classical singing, and 2) those who love this singer so much that they simply cannot countenance any even minor denigration of their hero. I hope I'm one of the rare people who can legitimately inhabit both factions, meaning that while I can rue the loss of his voice to the world's opera and concert stages, I can be legitimately grateful for all he meant to my generation, as it was Lanza who brought a then-12 year old movie-goer to Opera with THE GREAT CARUSO in 1951, and I still wallow in the sound of his voice some 67 years later. All that said, I am writing this because there is an absolute plethora of misinformation contained in many of the two dozen or so reviews under this title, and while we are usually admonished not to use our reviews as a battering ram against those of others, sometimes it is really necessary. I speak not of opinion. Everybody deserves to have his or her own. I speak of factual errors and assumptions, although one or two opinions may be so extreme that they deserve at least a bit of admonishment, so here goes. (And if this goes on past my allotted number of words, please look for a Part Two, which I will surely do, since that which is important enough to do at all, is important enough to do completely.)
lanzafan - Lanza does not sing falsetto, but mezza voce, which is not at all the same thing. I cannot recall Lanza ever singing falsetto. His may have been ONE of the voices of the century, but not THE voice of the century. Even if you really think he was better than, say, Caruso and Pavarotti, how does one compare his voice with those of Kirsten Flagstad or Rosa Ponselle, Ezio Pinza or Nazzareno de Angelis, Mattia Battistini or Titta Ruffo? You see the problem! You must have legitimate standards for comparison, and listening to all the available evidence before making such a statement is mandatory.
Derek McGovern - "Nessun dorma" is not, I think, so much strained, as simply bland (an unusual criticism for any Lanza performance), but the aria was not nearly as well known during the 1955 recording sessions as it would become over the next 60 years, so he may not have heard many other versions when he did this one. You can think his "Dio! mi potevi, scagliar!" is the best one ever done, but how many others have you heard? I have heard hundreds, and I could easily name 30 or 40 equal or better ones, most especially from Martinelli, Melchior and Del Monaco among the better known names close to Lanza's own time.
Greg Coutoure - "We weren't nearly as accepting of non-Anglo leading ladies back then". That may depend on your definition of "Anglo", but I would posit that we very much accepted Lupe Velez, Rita Hayworth, Leslie Caron. Gina Lollogbrigida, Ingrid Bergman and Sophie Loren back then, to name only the first half-dozen that come to mind. Mario Lanza's father did not remarry but stayed married to Mario's mother until the day she died in 1970. If you saw ML's Cadillac parked in or in front of his father's driveway, it was actually parked in or in front of his parents' driveway.
BobLib - Vincent Price does not play a music critic in the film. And I've never heard that Lanza was a fan of James Cain's SERENADE and tried to get M-G-M to make it years earlier. Given its homosexuality theme, the thought is totally ridiculous. (In addition to which, I can't imagine Lanza wanting to play a lead of dubious sexuality at any time in his short life!)
RBHB - "The voice of Mario Lanza is the greatest in history..." (see lanzafan above)
bkoganbing - Lanza never made a commercial recording of "La danza"; the three available versions consist of two from the soundtracks of THE GREAT CARUSO and SERENADE, and the third is from his radio show, and in all three he sang only the first half of the song (only God knows why, unless he was just too lazy to learn the second half).
MARIO GAUCI - Lanza was not an Italian tenor; he was an American tenor. Curtis Bernhardt had no power to have anyone fired at M-G-M, let alone its biggest male star. He and Lanza had major differences over the tenor's pre-recorded singing of "Beloved", and Lanza walked off the production, which was the last straw for Schary and M-G-M. At that point, Bernhardt certainly had a legitimate grievance, but he did not have Lanza fired; Schary did. Current Maltese tenor Joseph Calleia does not "go by" that name. It IS his name. Monteil was not Anthony Mann's wife at the time the film was made. They married in 1957.
jjaxn - Joan Fontaine had played hard-edged villainesses before LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (for example, as the murderess in IVY) and would continue to play soft-edged types for years after LETTER (for example, Rowena in IVANHOE, the concert pianist in SEPTEMBER AFFAIR, etc.). The actress who really had a quick makeover from mostly sweet blonde and/or brunette near-ingenues to black haired femme fatales in Noirs was Joan Bennett.
blanche-2 - Lanza does not walk off the stage "right before he strangles Desdemona"; this is their Act 3 confrontation. He doesn't kill her until their 2nd confrontation late in Act 4 - with intermission better than an hour later! I've been listening to him for 67 years, have everything he ever did, and Lanza does not "scoop a lot", and certainly not in the sense of scooping as a means to get to an otherwise difficult top note, and if he tends to "oversing" (whatever that may mean), what is to be said about Del Monaco, Rysanek and Bastianini (naming only singers of his own time, all three of whom were very great opera stars)? As for prior "divas and divos" of the silver screen, I might point out that Nino Martini played the same kind of working man of the earth tenor roles in the 1930s as did Lanza two decades later. The comment that voices shouldn't be darkening at 34 is somewhat nonsensical. Voices darken when they darken, some early, some late. Domingo was singing Otello at 34 even before his voice darkened appropriately, and he's still singing at 77. Vinay, a famous OTELLO, was a famous Otello from his 36th year, and his voice was so dark he'd been singing baritone into his mid-30s. This is the first time I have ever seen an allegation of Lanza sexually harassing his female co-stars, and I would have to know where THAT came from - certainly not from Grayson, Blyth, Morrow (he didn't like Morrow because she smoked!), Fontaine, Montiel or Allasio.
atlasmb - Lanza was not the PREMIER tenor of his time. He was the most famous one (thanks to Hollywood), but that is not the same thing at all. "Premier" would indicate that he was the most important opera tenor on the planet, against whom all others were compared and found wanting. He was not, and they were not. Today, for example, the PREMIER tenor of his time is probably Jonas Kaufmann, but the most famous one is surely Andrea Bocelli, who is close to being a joke among serious opera lovers and musicians. Like him or not, not even detractors ever joked about Lanza's voice. -
A veritable trash fest. Some of it, like whenever Joan Fontaine and Vincent Price are on screen, is kinda fun. Most of it, especially when Mario Lanza and Sarita Montiel act, is unspeakably dull. On balance I expected noir veterans Goff/Roberts and Anthony Mann to do a better job of adapting James M Cain. Solid C.
-
arrival28 November 2005Some might say that Mario Lanza was overweight and not in his best voice for this Movie, but that would be judging him by those factors alone. This in my opinion ironically is Lanza's best Movie ever! Serenade is a very dramatic Movie with great performances from the likes of Joan Fontaine and in particular Sarita Montiel who really makes this Picture. Add this to the beautiful colourful backdrops and a haunting and dramatic score in the use of 'Serenade', and what you have is a cocktail for a fabulous Movie! For a two hour Film this could have been 'over-long' but in fact the two hours fly by as the whole is so absorbing.
This lush Masterpiece from 1956 is so under-rated as to never have been released on either Video or DVD in the United Kingdom - and only on Video for a limited period in the USA. If you want to own this Movie you're going to have to be patient and hunt madly, but it will be well worth the time spent! And for those who've already seen it, they will want to own it also, and so you'll have some pretty stiff competition in obtaining one of those scarce copies! If you haven't seen it, then book yourself a night in when it is next shown on TV for a great piece of entertainment, and have the chocolates and wine at the ready for a good quality night's viewing!
This is a superb production - oh, and don't forget the tissues!
Simply magic! -
boblipton11 March 2020It's based on a James Cain novel. Joan Fontaine is the vamp who chews them up and spits them out -- it's an interesting thought that this is how she might have played Rebecca, given the chance. She does as much for Lanza, and it's up to Sara Montiel to put him back together. It's pure Cain melodrama, with Lanza's musical numbers the highlights, but there is an interesting bit of subtext to what he sings: popular songs are fine, but the closer he gets to an opera house, the greater the echo effects and the greater the danger to him.
I know that director Anthony Mann was a great stylist, but his A work never appealed to me. Like Negulesco, he was one of those directors who knew how to get great effects on a small budget, but give him a big budget, and it becomes money on the screen to me. Sometimes it worked (I'm sure the battle in SPARTACUS, in which the Romans attack in terrifying unison, only for the rebel slaves to roll burning logs through their disintegrating ranks, was his) and sometimes it didn't (the Dead Guy a Horse in EL CID). At his best, he could rely on James Stewart; at his worst, he had to make do with spectacle. This is middling and very watchable; but Vincent Price is wasted as Clifton Webb and only the singing is engrossing. -
SERENADE deserves to be watched for one reason alone--MARIO LANZA, who happens to be in magnificent voice, doing full justice to a number of arias and numbers like LA DANZA and AVE MARIA. The latter is beautifully rendered in ringing tones, upper and lower register sounding better than ever.
But it's too bad his acting remained a constant problem. Not only is he unconvincing in most of his dialog, but JOAN FONTAINE is wildly miscast as his wicked benefactor. Miss Fontaine was a cool beauty but playing women without a moral compass was not her forte. As compensation, SARITA MONTIEL does nicely as a feisty Mexican woman with whom Lanza finds true love.
Based on a novel by James M. Cain (author of tough pulp novels), SERENADE had themes which were too racy for Hollywood to handle in the '50s, but this rewrite of Cain's story fails to capture the raw power of Cain's original story, whitewashed as it is.
Summing up: Worth watching just to hear Lanza's golden voice--but the plot is a weary thing. -
When this one was released I was still dazzled by the sleek beauty of the line of 1956 Lincoln automobiles. So, in the opening sequence, when Joan Fontaine, with her protege, Vince Edwards (playing a hot-headed boxer), in a "long, low, luxurious Lincoln" convertible (top down, of course), stop by the side of a vineyard where Mario Lanza is laboring (quite without any sign of perspiration, by the way...must have been an unseasonably cool day, despite the blazing sunshine!), to ask directions, I was hooked. The fire-engine red Premiere convertible is as lovingly photographed as the stars and it wasn't until Sarita Montiel, playing Mario's true love, Juana, makes her entrance, that I ceased wishing that resplendent automobile would again appear to do justice to the use of Technicolor (oops!), I mean, Warnercolor, in this soap-with-music.
Sarita, though her list of Spanish language films is quite awesome, never enjoyed much of a career in Hollywood films. (We weren't nearly as accepting of non-Anglo leading ladies back then.) She is just gorgeous in this one and her playing as the fiery and passionate (what else?!?) Juana helped Mario convince us that he was a man who could be snatched from the diabolical and devastating ensnarements of Joan Fontaine's spoiled heiress, Kendall Hale. The introduction of her character, when Mario flees in disgrace to Mexico, permits a scenic and worth-the-price-of-admission tour of Mexican locales.
The music is fairly well presented in this one. Not being an opera connoisseur, I am not qualified to comment knowledgeably on Mr. Lanza's renditions of operatic excerpts, but I have always found his tenor voice to be among the most listenable (So many of them just bleat!), and his constant reprising of the title song throughout this movie did not grow tiresome, at least to these ears.
A side note: Mario's father, quite a dear old gentleman, who had remarried, lived down the street in the Huntington Palisades section of Pacific Palisades, in southern California, where my family owned a home. I frequently saw Mario's Cadillac parked in his father's driveway, but, alas!, never caught a glimpse of the golden-voiced Mario himself, who was, you may be sure, his father's pride and joy. -
peters159-15 September 2006Poor Mario Lanza. I say this because his awful screen career was what did him in. A noted Opera singer who was in The Great Caruso observed that all Mr Lanza wanted to do was sing. MGM did him a disservice and his manager did a greater blame for filling the young singers head when he should have been taking more singing lessons and more engagements like the Hollywood Bowl concert. And should have stayed far away from the siren song of MGM. Mr Lanza had a great voice but alas it was, as he was, undisciplined, he only had 18 minutes of voice. He could not sustain it in a full scale opera. Of course, when MGM had a contract you were at their mercy, and when Mr Lanza's antics became even too much for the great studio they dropped him as quickly as they signed him. And left him for the sharks to devour. And I mean the "boy,s". Pay up now! There was no threat of breaking his legs, they just pulled the plug on him on night. And that was that. Still, it was nice that Warner Bros gave him a chance to sing. And that's why I like Serenade. They really gave him the great chance. Who cares about the plot, Hollywood was always buying James M Cains books and the ignoring the real plots, look at Mildred Pierce, Veda was an Opera singer but in the film she ended up singing some silly ditty called Oceana Roll. Anyway, the original plot to Serenade was too hot for movies at that time. Mario Lanza's life was a real American tragedy and I hope that someday someone will really film his life story - wart's and all - Now, that would be something. Serenade. Thank you Mario Lanza, you showed us what you might have become in that film Too bad for the ending.
-
pietclausen8 March 2021Mario Lanza's musicals are similar in style and development of the plot. Serenade is no exception and follows the path of the tenor from farmer to fame and back again. Prominence is placed on his love life, his downfall and recovery.
Many arias are sung throughout the movie, a gain for opera fans. Other viewers may just enjoy the music. The story is bland, almost like an opera, or a modern soapie. -
RoundTripTicket7 May 2022I enjoy Mario Lanza's singing a lot, one of my favorite albums is his Christmas Carol one. So I check out his movies.
This one is a typical 1950s B movie, not terribly interesting. Lanza's singing, however, is great. But I couldn't take my eyes off of that dead squirrel stapled to the top of his head. -
artzau8 April 2001He was overweight, struggling and stumbles through this story based on a cheap thriller but it was still worth the price of admission. The guy could sing like no one else. His acting was often wooden, his lines delivered like the Pennsylvania Grocer's kid he was. His music was marginal, his phrasing and articulation shoddy but damn, he sang like an angel. This guy was living proof that technique does not always an artist make. The story here, with Joan Fontaine miscast as a man-eater and Kathy Jurado as a Mexican Maja who saves the soul of a lost tenor, is a wide departure from the book which touched on themes of homosexuality, a taboo subject back in the 50s. Sadly, there's no video. No big deal, I suppose, the screenplay story is whining and boring with fun moments provided by the beautiful Ms. Jurado and Vinnie Price as the Impresario. But, Mario's singing rescues it and makes another of the cult classics that all his films are. As a former singer, I'm always amazed at how bad he was as an opera singer but, wow. What a voice. If you get a chance to see this on the late show, check it out. Mario's voice will thrill you.
-
My initial introduction to the screen Lanza was his voice emerging from the handsome persona of Edmund Purdom in "The Student Prince".
When I eventually saw him as the star of "The Seven Hills of Rome", I was less than impressed and even though "The Great Caruso" is a good film, I just don't enjoy watching him on screen."Serenade" is really a very tacky offering, salvaged only by some good opera singing but let down by the tenor bellowing and straining to a couple of otherwise pleasant ballads. His appearance is dissipated and unattractive at best.
Now to the other leads. Joan Fontaine is wrong in stature and visage to play the ruthless siren who tempts the hero to near destruction. Such an obvious man-eater could have been better played by a B-Grade star like Martha Hyer or Dorothy Malone rather than a former A-Grader like La Fontaine who degrades herself trying to give this insufferable woman some class. Every bit as camp and ridiculous is Vincent Price as the leering impresario who seems to spend the whole film delighting in the way Fontaine snares her prey. O. K. For unintentional laughter. -
I really enjoyed this movie. Mario Lanza's voice is so powerful and beautiful - the most emotionally charged voice I have ever listened to. He was God's gift to us with a beautiful powerful tenor voice. His 'Ave Maria' inspires even if you are an ardent Protestant. This man could sing beyond belief. Any one out there with a musical ear let him hear this man's voice - it will exalt you to the heavens.
The story line is good and the acting okay. I found it thoroughly engaging and who could refuse to like this film when Vincent Price is in it. What a class act he is. Voice, presence, poise - this actor had it all. We will never hear a voice like Lanza again. The tenors of today are technically good but they have no heart, soul and emotion although they try very hard. My eyes are moist whenever Lanza sings it is so beautiful. What a joy to hear him sing. "And Flights of Angels Sing Thee to Thy Rest"! -
rnhealer30 May 2022Mario Lanza was a wonderful and he sang superbly in this film whether he hadn't been a movie in a few years or not. It was the movie that was forgettable.
The first half of this film was just plain awful.l. I wondered if most of the scenes depicting Joan Fontaine and Mario's relationship was left on the cutting room floor. We don't see the reason his patron dumps him to take off with a new man toy. All we see is her box seat at the opera is empty and he falls apart and runs off the stage. I was left feeling very bewildered. The scenes in this two hour movie are very disjointed
I enjoyed all Mario's arias, but the performances lacked passion and I was very disappointed. -
derekmcgovern5 February 2003Serenade is far and away Lanza's most interesting movie. True, The Great Caruso is a more accessible film (and the best introduction to Lanza), but Serenade packs a far greater punch. This is melodrama to the nth degree, and fittingly it contains some of the finest dramatic singing ever recorded.
Let's get the quibbles out of the way first. Injudicious editing has made some of the scenes appear silly and illogical. The speed with which Lanza becomes obsessed with Joan Fontaine seems absurd, and the ending could have been so much better. Would that the scenarists had had the courage to follow more closely the James Cain novel on which this movie is based, but then again, this was Hollywood, 1955. Had the movie been made without the censorship constraints of, say, a mere ten years later, it could have been a masterpiece. All I can say is, read the novel and you'll see what I mean!
I would also criticize Anthony Mann's direction at times. Re-takes of some of Lanza's hammier moments should definitely have been made, and the film lacks (at times) the full dramatic treatment that its subject deserves. Re-takes of Lanza's Nessun Dorma and Di Quella Pira should also have been made. In both arias he sounds uncharacteristically strained, and in each case a second take would have sorted out the problem.
Quibbles aside, Lanza's acting is often outstanding (the Ave Maria scene, for instance, is a revelation). Vincent Price, Lanza's acid-tongued and hilarious manager in the movie, later remarked off-screen how impressed he was with the tenor's dedicated approach to his acting. Sarita Montiel is also outstanding in her role as a fiery Mexican bullfighter's daughter, providing Lanza with his best-ever leading lady.
But what makes this film a vocal masterpiece is Lanza's singing. La Danza, Torna a Surriento, Amor Ti Vieta, O Paradiso, the Otello Monologue (Dio! Mi potevi scagliar...) and the heart-rending Lamento Di Federico are all astonishing feats of singing. By 1955 Lanza's voice had darkened into a lirico spinto tenor that often borders on the dramatic. It is rare indeed to hear a tenor with such baritonal fullness AND a ringing tenorial top. (Eat your heart out, Placido Domingo!) Lanza For my money, the Otello Monologue is the pinnacle of Lanza's operatic legacy, and the finest recording of this aria. The scene in which it appears is also brilliantly acted by Lanza. As the critic John Cargher would later remark, Lanza's rendition of the Otello Monologue alone "would assure him of immortality."
All criticism aside, Serenade remains a source of immense pleasure to me, and it is richly deserving of far wider appreciation. -
edjavega27 June 2004"Serenade" is one of the great Mario Lanza's more interesting films, taking on a heavier dramatic tone than his early fluff with MGM. There is true pathos and tragedy in some of the scenes, and you really feel for his character.
Spanish movie legend Sarita Montiel is quite fetching and likeable as his lady love, and for once, we see the American protagonist being saved by the love of a non-Anglo (older movies would always show the brunette as the femme fatale and the blonde girl back home as the virtuous one). Too bad she sings no songs in this movie, although the Mexico scenes are colorful and well-done.
But as usual, it is Mario's great voice which truly shines here. He sings more opera arias in this film than in any other movie of his (except possibly "The Great Caruso"). His combination of lyric sweetness, magnificent dramatic sound and ringing top notes, plus sheer versatility, is unmatched even by some of the greatest classically-trained singers, including Pavarotti and Domingo. And he is certainly better than today's pop opera darling Andrea Bocelli.
Vincent Prince and Joan Fontaine (still gorgeous here) bring their usual great support.
The final scene (at Joan Fontaine's party) actually has great dramatic tension although somewhat marred by a less than satisfying ending to the movie. Still very watchable. -
rbrb28 June 2010What a marvelous musical drama this is, and grateful to TCM for putting it on their schedules. This is a story of how a vineyard worker rises to be an opera star, but falls victim to the emotional torture of a femme fatale which sends him into apparent oblivion. Then he meets a Mexican beauty and so can she raise him from the ashes?
What drama and what performances!
The voice of Mario Lanza is the greatest in history, and his rendition of "Nessum Dorma" and "Ave Marie" are show stoppers. Full of heart, passion and soul. There is just enough Opera in this film to keep everyone happy, like or loathe it.
The smoldering and intense beauty and performance of Sara Montrel, begs the question, who can surpass her as the most charismatic female on screen in the last 50 years?
Joan Fontaine is a suitably wicked witch and Vincent Price's mere raising of an eyebrow tell's a tale all by itself.
This is a classic movie beautifully filmed and totally underrated by the IMDb voters. Soap from beginning to end, and all the major performers vie to out drama queen each other, even to the final climactic scene.
Bravo!
8/10.