Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

TheLittleSongbird In fact, for me, a close second best to 1950's 'Three Little Words', which just gets the edge for having a little more energy pace-wise and never giving the impression that it should have been shorter.Despite pretty much all of them being heavily fictionalised, with some like 'Till the Clouds Roll By' and 'Words and Music' really coming to life in the musical numbers and losing interest pretty significantly in the biographical sections, all of the 1940s-1950s composer musical biopics (titles being 'Till the Clouds Roll By', 'Rhapsody in Blue', 'Night and Day', 'Words and Music', 'Three Little Words' and this) are worth watching at least once.Based on the life of operetta composer Sigmund Romberg, whose magnificent tunes often paired with librettos that could be silly and thin but with enough elegance and charm, 'Deep in My Heart' is very loose biographically but as a piece of entertainment in its own right it does excel. It is let down only really by the story dragging pretty badly in the middle section where there's less emphasis on song and more on biography, with the biographical sections despite being nicely written and excellently played lacking the momentum shown when the music/dancing takes centre stage. At over 2 hours, with parts dragging, it does feel like a long haul at times and did feel like it could have been 15-20 minutes shorter.However, 'Deep in My Heart' is a beautiful-looking film, photographed with elegance and lavishly designed. Can't get enough of Jane Powell and Cyd Charisse's dresses either. The music is magnificent (more on the highlights later), with none of the singers and dancers not doing justice to it, while the script has some cute, witty and sometimes sophisticated humour and also some emotional moments like the very moving Carnegie Hall finale.Jose Ferrer gives a bravura performance in the title role, essential for being the one holding everything together. He is very well supported by a lovely Merle Oberon and a fine Walter Pidgeon. Stanley Donen directs beautifully in the first and last thirds, if plodding a little in the middle act. The choreography in "It" and "One Alone" is on the same level as the music, electrifying in "It" and erotic in "One Alone".There are many musical/performing highlights here. A big standout is the Cyd Charisse/James Mitchell dancing in "One Alone", sensuous doesn't describe it, while Ann Miller electrifies in "It" and Jane Powell and Vic Damone make hearts swoon in "Will You Remember". Helen Traubel also sounds great, and 'Deep in My Heart' offers rare and delightful chances of seeing Ferrer and real life wife Rosemary Clooney together in "Mr and Mrs" and brothers Fred and Gene (yes that Gene) Kelly in "I Love to Go Swimmin with Wimmen". Tony Martin sounds glorious in "Lover Come Back to Me" as does Howard Keel in "Your Land and My Land".In conclusion, flawed but with so many wonderful things. 8/10 Bethany Cox

weezeralfalfa My title comes from Ferrer's twice burlesquing of the title of one of Sigmund Romberg's most popular musical plays "The Student Prince", the lyrics of which were done by his Irish- American friend Dorothy Donnelly, here played by Merle Oberon, who serves as his quasi-girlfriend in the film, until he meets the woman who will become his second wife: a rather faceless Lillian Harris, played by Doe Avedon. Unlike Dorothy, who was Romberg's contemporary in age,Lillian was 18 years younger than her aging fiancé. Dorothy never married and, as indicated in the film, died unexpectedly at the height of Romberg's career. Although not hinted in the film, like so many of America's famous theater people of the early 20th century, Romberg was a Jew, who fled the pre-Hitler anti-Semitism of eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia. Thus, he had to learn a new language and musical culture before embarking on a new musical career. As shown in the film,he did begin by playing the piano and occasionally composing songs in various NYC restaurants, later to be hired as a composer for shows, before becoming an independent composer. Most of the plentiful melodrama relates to disputes with show producers over his compositions, or problems with his future wife's domineering mother, who initially was not impressed with his style of popular compositions. I was initially attracted to purchase a DVD of this film because it mentioned that Romberg was the composer of "Desert Song". I have treasured my very hard to find DVD of the 1953 film adaptation, starring Gordon MacRae and Kathryn Grayson.I see that, very recently, the 1955 TV version, starring Nelson Eddy, was released on DVD. Incidentally, both this site and the Wikipedia article on the present film got the source for Anne Miller's "It" performance wrong. Obviously, it's not from "Desert Song", as indicated, but rather from "Artists and Models": a burlesquing of the roaring '20s... Other film adaptations of Romberg's works include the 1954 "Student Prince", featuring Mario Lanza'a voice, if not troublesome body, and "Maytime", as well as "New Moon", both starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, back 15-20 years before. Thus, there was a rash of Romberg revivals on film or TV within a few years after his death in '51.Getting back to this film, I was disappointed that not more songs from "Desert Song" were included. Also, Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote or co-wrote the lyrics for several of Romberg's best known works(including "Desert Song"), wasn't mentioned until nearly Dorothy's death, and was barely included at all in the film. I didn't find Helen Traubel's singing voice very engaging, which is unfortunate, since she got 5 numbers to sing, whereas everyone else got only one. Jeanette MacDonald was the original choice to play her character, and I'm sorry this didn't work out. While her "Stout-Hearted Men" was OK, this was obviously meant for a man to sing, thus I will continue to prefer Nelson Eddy's rendition, for example. Actually, I see no necessity for Helen's purely fictional character, other than perhaps to provide some additional continuity to the story, besides Ferrer and Oberson, as Dorothy. Also Ferrer's singing voice is quite mediocre, as displayed in the finale "When I Grow Too Old to Dream". Thankfully, a chorus finished up this song. On the other hand, I found him quite engaging as Romberg. You may or may not find amusing his impromptu impersonation of the various characters in his then current project., about midway in the film. Clearly, his future mother-in-law wasn't impressed. I did find it rather good, including the derisive song "Fat, Fat, Fatima", lyrics by Ballard McDonald.Turning to the various 'guest' performers: noted ballerina/dancer Tamara Toumanova, as Gabe, sings(dubbed) and dances a bit to "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise", in a very gaudy outfit and set, which Romberg clearly doesn't like. It was fun seeing the two Kelly brothers sing and dance a bit. They did look amazingly alike, thus it wasn't necessary to resort to trick photography, (as in "Cover Girl"),to see Gene dancing with a double of himself. Jane Powell and Vic Damone did a good job in a romantic outdoor scene with "Road to Paradise" and the classic "Sweetheart", from "Maytime". Anne Miller does a great job with a charleston-tap dance hybrid, to "It", with various outrageously- dressed or costumed roaring '20s characters as a preliminary and backdrop. This production was certainly the highlight of the film for me. William Olvis does an excellent job with the classic "Serenade", from "The Student Prince". Cyd Charisse, in a strange opulent set, sings(dubbed) "One Alone" from "Desert Song", followed by a very entwining ballet with wooden-faced James Mitchell. Howard Keel then belts out the patriotic "Your Land and My Land", from the Civil War-oriented "My Maryland". A bit later, Tony Martin warbles the romantic "Lover, Come Back to Me", from "The New Moon". My DVD has an outtake of George Murphy singing "Girlies of the Cabaret", featuring a parade of outrageously costumed 'girlies', representing various countries, with Esther Williams representing 'Miss USA'. This should not have been deleted! The opening symphonic medley was also very good.

marcslope The light touch and sense of fun evident in so much of Stanley Donen's musical work is almost entirely missing from this ten-ton biopic of Sigmund Romberg, played diligently but without charm by Jose Ferrer. Apparently it just wasn't a very interesting life, so MGM masked a near-total absence of drama with a bevy of guest appearances. Some work out beautifully, though most of these have more to do with dance than Romberg's melodies: a nifty tap production number with Ann Miller, an extremely hot "Desert Song" pas de deux by Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell, a lively comedy routine with Gene Kelly and his brother Fred. But the best of Romberg is stiffly staged in vignettes featuring a bored-looking Jane Powell and Vic Damone ("Maytime"), William Olvis ("The Student Prince"), and Howard Keel (a very uneasy "My Maryland"). Worse, none of the people surrounding Ferrer seem right: Merle Oberon was nothing like Dorothy Donnelly, and the screenwriters' attempt to create some drama by suggesting she was vainly in love with Siggy falls flat. The love of his life, Mrs. Romberg, is given to a pallid Grace Kelly wannabe, Doe Avedon. Helen Traubel, as his best pal, sings well but is also given too much shtick. Arthur Freed might have invested more vitality than Roger Edens, but it's an unexciting and overlong entertainment, worth sitting through once for the better musical numbers.

bkoganbing Way back in the day when the big studios did biographical pictures about composers and songwriters all they were was an excuse to do a lot of musical numbers by that composer. The real lives of the composers were either too dull like Jerome Kern or like Cole Porter way too naughty to be discussed in earnest.Sigmund Romberg hardly had a dull life and I wish that some of it would have been shown. Watching this film you would never know he was Jewish and came to this country to both escape the draft for the Hapsburg army and because of the vicious anti-Semitism in Vienna as typified by Vienna's mayor, Karl Lueger a precursor of Hitler. I think that's a theme that should have been explored and is crucial to understanding him.The real Romberg who wrote those wonderful Viennese schmaltz melodies was a lot like the Jewish peddler in Ship of Fools, celebrating that culture which discriminated against him. Remember he was proud and rightly so of the Iron Cross he won in World War I. Romberg fortunately for him and the world of songwriting was not half the fool that the peddler was.That being said, Romberg is delightfully essayed by that most castable of players Jose Ferrer. Ferrer with that impeccable diction, courtesy of the Triangle Club at Princeton, played every kind of nationality in his screen career and he's great here. He has a great monologue in this where he's describing a current project where he plays all the parts in the musical he's writing at the moment. Merle Oberon rings true with her portrayal of Dorothy Donnelly who collaborated with Romberg on Student Prince and My Maryland. She was crushing on Sigmund big time, but Ferrer only had eyes for Doe Avedon who played his beloved Lillian Harris.Operetta plots are so silly that productions are hardly ever done today. Criticism of such work as Maytime, Student Prince, Desert Song and New Moon rightly belong in those films, but speaking as someone who likes good melodies, Sigmund Romberg certainly composed them in abundance. MGM dragged out a good group of performers to do them. A particular favorite here is Tony Martin singing Lover Come Back to Me from the New Moon.One of the reasons that this film came out in 1954 was also because Romberg had a posthumous hit running on Broadway at the time. The Girl in Pink Tights opened that year with lyrics done by Leo Robin to some unpublished melodies that Romberg had written. My parents when they were alive remembered seeing Sigmund Romberg in concert. The film at the end gives a glimpse of Romberg conducting an orchestra as he did often in the last 15 years of his life and Ferrer does ring true with Romberg the performer. Also performing was Helen Traubel, Wagnerian soprano who was also enjoying a good run as Jimmy Durante's, Margaret Dumont. MGM took advantage of her small screen popularity by casting her in Deep In My Heart.Don't expect the life of Sigmund Romberg here, but be prepared for a great melodic treat.