Search - Song Is Born (1948) (Full Dub Sub) on DVD

Second time's a charm (too)

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 04/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""A Song Is Born"
(MGM, 1948)
--------------------------------------------
An excellent 1948 remake, by director Howard Hawks, of Howard Hawks' excellent 1941 comedy, "Ball of Fire," in which a group of fusty, out-of-touch professors are taken in by a tough-talking, vivacious modern gal who shows them a thing or two about the fast-talking modern world.

Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck starred in the original; here, their parts are played by Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, and instead of the gal being a burlesque girl, here she's a nightclub singer. This is handy because in 1948, the perfessers are interested in jazz music, and through diligent work they pull in an amazing all-star band of some of the hottest musicians of the big band era: Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnett, Tommy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton, Mel Powell, The Golden Gate Quartet and a slew of others. Benny Goodman is doubly delicious in his role as a clarinet-toting fuddy-duddy professor who cuts loose when he's exposed to swing.

As remakes go, this is a remarkably durable film. The original is one of my favorite screwball comedies, but this version is also pretty fun, and the musical numbers are not to be missed. Danny Kaye is more believable as a nervous, repressed ivory tower academic, although a great deal of the charm of the original was the casting against type of the virile he-man movie idol Gary Cooper. It's Stanwyck who is really missed here, but Mayo does fine. (Besides, if I want to see Stanwyck, I'll just go back to the original...) All in all, this is a funny, funky film, with some great, hot musical interludes. Definitely worth checking out! (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film review blog)"

One of the best

Daniel Daley | reno, nv | 04/15/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"im blown away that this film took so long to get a good dvd treatment. one of the best musicals ive ever seen."

A Song is Born

Kenneth A. Lance | 05/04/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is an excellent classic movie. Danny Kaye at his best. A must see movie."

Great movie for Danny Kaye buffs

L. Williams | Clearwater, FL, USA | 05/19/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Danny Kaye plays a stodgy and reclusive music professor who is working with a group of similar doddering oldsters who are attempting to catalog the roots of music from the ancient past to the present, but due to their ivory tower studies, they've missed the big band, bebop, rag and jazz sensations that were sweeping the nation in the early part of the 20th century. Virginia Mayo is the moll of a local gangster who needs a hideout to lay low in and stumbles on the mansion where the musical research and recording is going on, meets Danny and his long-hair group, and exposes them to these modern rhythms, changing the direction of their work considerably.

The music performances are terrific and don't bog the flow of the movie. The comedy is typical Danny Kaye and delightful without getting too silly. The improbable love story between Kaye and Mayo actually works and is cute. This is an unusual case where the remake is better than the original movie.

A treat is that big band leader and clarinetist Benny Goodman appears as one of the professors, and provides a quite acceptable performance both as a book-wormish scholar, and as a musician who discovers he's got jazz chops he didn't know he had.

Mayo plays her usual voluptuous self, the glamorous and sophisticated showgirl on the lam.

This is a classic light movie that showcases some great musical talent and is very entertaining. Highly recommended."