Words and Music

‘Slaughter on Tenth Avenue’ ballet sequence choreographed and directed by Robert Alton and Gene Kelly
Directed by Norman Taurog

It’s another welcome item for fans of MGM musicals, the postwar Technicolor extravaganzas usually described as ‘Glorious!’  They were indeed popular, glittering marvels. Top talent sang and danced to music from some of the biggest talents of the century.

In 1947 and 1948 almost every movie made money, and some of MGM’s most popular Technicolor Tuners were not musical comedies or Broadway adaptations but variety shows disguised as biographies of popular composers and songwriters. 1948’s Words and Music is an expensive Arthur Freed production featuring a full roster of Metro musical talent. The only obvious name not present is Fred Astaire. “The Biggest Musical!” proclaims the poster banner, showing off seven star names as disembodied heads. MGM’s most accomplished producer of musicals, Arthur Freed, has his name on the show.

A couple of weeks back we enjoyed MGM’s musical bio  Three Little Words, which actually stressed story elements over its songs. Words and Music follow more of a straight revue format, with disconnected songs from the dynamite songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. In between numbers we get a fabricated story of their Broadway team-up, played without apology by Tom Drake and overplayed to good effect by Mickey Rooney. But in Words and Music almost every song we hear is a timeless classic, with a melody that puts modern ‘power ballads’ to shame. All of the free-standing musical numbers in Words and Music play well, even when they’re just straight-on moving photographs of the talent crooning.

By this time America had been conditioned to accept as gospel whatever fairy tales MGM happened to be selling … for corroboration on that, just check out their ‘informational’ series  Crime Does Not Pay. Documentary films as we now know them were not yet fully formed. But who took movies seriously?  The counter-attitude would have been ‘Lighten up, it’s entertainment, not a coroner’s transcript.’ The musical biography format normally charts a star’s rise to fame and fortune, a progress interrupted by personal heartbreaks that only add to the poignancy of the great songs being created. As explained by author Richard Barrios, most of the music makers immortalized by MGM didn’t come from backgrounds of hardship, and their personal problems could often be adjusted to the ‘everything’s rosy’ requirement of the genre. Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers were incredibly talented, but even they wouldn’t have wanted their real lives to go up on a movie screen. Hart was a self-loathing gay man who drank himself to a tragic early death, while Rodgers cautiously guarded his private life. Words and Music invents an almost entirely bogus biography for each of them.

Thus we are given a snappy little storyline, digestible sketches sandwiched between the glossy musical numbers. Broadway hopefuls Richard Rodgers and Lorenz ‘Lorry’ Hart (Tom Drake & Mickey Rooney) initially encounter difficulty finding acceptance for their innovative songs. When finally launched as a composer-lyricist duo, success rains down on them both. But their personal relationships differ greatly. Richard is lucky in love and marries Dorothy Feiner (Janet Leigh), the sister of a friend. Lorry reels from bouts of depression and becomes an erratic collaborator, disappearing at odd times.

Several of the musical numbers in Words and Music are considered classics, but these connecting biographical segments are kitsch of the highest order. Tom Drake is a bland Richard Rodgers while Mickey Rooney as Lorenz Hart is, well, Mickey Rooney. When on a high Lorry is the life of the party; when in the doldrums he’s pitiful but never abusive of others. The large cast is drawn from the MGM acting stable, some of whom worked with Rodgers and Hart both in films and on Broadway. Gene Kelly, for instance, gained stardom in their musical play Pal Joey. This creates a bizarre situation in which some actors (Marshall Thompson, Cyd Charisse, Janet Leigh) are playing fictional characters, and some (Gene Kelly, June Allyson, Vera-Ellen) more or less play themselves. When Rooney and Garland are on screen together, they have to pretend that she’s herself but Mickey is somebody else. Meanwhile, Perry Como wanders through several songs as singer ‘Eddie Lorrison Anders,’ when we all know he’s Perry Como. (Even back then, columnists kidded about Perry Como being so laid-back that he seemed somnambulent.)  Audiences would have been confused, had they bothered to worry about such problems. The musical genre was allowed to exist in a cloud of feel-good fantasy.

The songwriters’ career arc provides emotional cues for the film’s fourteen musical numbers, a parade of sparkling Rodgers and Hart hits. The list is dominated by songs from their Broadway hit Babes in Arms. The songs aren’t presented in the order they were written, and we don’t see original Broadway staging or choreography. The production numbers look more or less like generic 1940s MGM work with updated dancing. A ballet corps gathers to accompany Cyd Charisse for one number, and Gene Kelly turns a lyric-free Rodgers & Hart composition into his first major dance-narrative set piece.

A number of songs are associated with specific characters. Betty Garrett sings There’s a Small Hotel at a party; Rooney demos Hart’s lyrics for Manhattan at the piano. Rooney and Garland were known to entertain at legendary Hollywood parties, wowing attendees with intimate concerts. As ‘Hart and Garland’ they entertain a party with an impromptu rendition of I Wish I Were in Love Again. It’s a fine showcase for lyricist Hart’s elaborate interior rhymes.

Billed as himself but pretending to be a bandleader, Mel Tormé warbles Blue Moon to Lorry at the end of an all-night party. Most of the other numbers are on stage or in nightclubs: Mountain Greenery (Perry Como), Where’s that Rainbow (Ann Sothern) and Thou Swell (June Allyson). Lena Horne sings The Lady is a Tramp and Where or When in a stunning nightclub sequence purposely designed so that it could be cut out without harming the film’s continuity: many major theaters in Southern communities would not play movies with African-American performers.

For its semi-tragic ending Words and Music has a rather foolish-looking Mickey Rooney stumble from his hospital bed and rush to the theater. This at least has some resemblance to history — Hart did arrive at theaters drunk, although I’ve read nothing about him making embarrassing scenes. Before he died he was working toward a reunion with Rodgers.

The real climax, and the lasting reason for watching the movie, is Gene Kelly’s ballet Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,from the 1936 stage show On Your Toes. Ray Bolger is said to have performed it in more of a comedy mode. Kelly and Vera-Ellen dance a straight seven minutes of tour-de-force jazz ballet with some fairly strong erotic content. Audiences responded enthusiastically; Kelly proudly showcased the number whenever he made a ‘career highlights’ personal appearance. Automated moving scenery helps create slick segues between Kelly’s bedroom, a sleazy street corner and a step-down dive of a bar. There is a gangster picture about rackets and Unions from 1957 called Slaughter on 10th Avenue. It uses parts of Richard Rodgers music, but not to any particular effect.

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The featured songs:

Manhattan  1925 from The Garrick Gaieties  sung by Mickey Rooney, Tom Drake (dubbed by Bill Lee), Marshall Thompson

There’s a Small Hotel  1936 from On Your Toes  sung by Betty Garrett

Way Out West  1937 from Babes in Arms  sung by Betty Garrett

Where’s that Rainbow  1926 from Peggy-Ann  sung by Ann Sothern + The Blackburn Twins

On Your Toes  1936  danced by Cyd Charisse

This Can’t Be Love  1938 from The Boys from Syracuse  sung by Cyd Charisse, Dee Turnell

Blue Room  1926 from The Girl Friend  sung by Perry Como, Cyd Charisse

Thou Swell  1927 from A Connecticut Yankee  sung by June Allyson, Pete Roberts, Eugene Cox

With a Song in My Heart  1930 from Spring Is Here  sung by Tom Drake (Bill Lee)

Where or When  1937 from Babes in Arms  sung by Lena Horne

The Lady Is a Tramp  1937 from Babes in Arms  sung by Lena Horne

I Wish I Were in Love Again  1937 from Babes in Arms  sung by Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney

Johnny One Note  1937 from Babes in Arms  sung by Judy Garland

Blue Moon  1934  sung by Mel Tormé

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue  1936 from On Your Toes  danced by Gene Kelly, Vera-Ellen

With a Song In My Heart (end medley)