Til The Clouds Roll By

Buy This Item Til The Clouds Roll By by Unicorn Video  Available from Amazon  $4.99  on 11-27-2008     Hollywood's 1940s craze for composer biographies did not yield many masterpieces, and <I>Till the Clouds Roll By</I> is one of the weaker efforts in the bunch. Robert Walker tries gamely to suggest the decency of Jerome Kern but is defeated by a sluggish story line pairing him with a crotchety mentor (Van Heflin). As a collection of freestanding production numbers devoted to Kern's songs, however, the movie has appeal. It begins with almost 20 minutes of <I>Showboat</I> (including Lena Horne's plaintive reading of "Can't Help Lovin' That Man") and the hits just keep on coming. Judy Garland, who appears in a few scenes as stage star Marilyn Miller, contributes "Look for the Silver Lining" and a Gatsby-esque production number on "Who?" Her songs were staged by then-hubby Vincente Minnelli. Other highlights include a young Angela Lansbury, still with baby fat, singing "How'd You Like to Spoon with Me?" Lucille Bremer, a leggy starlet who never quite caught on, plays Kern's protégé. She spins a delightful duet with Van Johnson on "I Won't Dance," two redheads capering with gusto. It all ends with another splashy theatrical montage, climaxing in Frank Sinatra's take on "Ol' Man River." That might sound like a strange idea, but Ol' Blue Eyes clearly loves the song (he would return to it often in his career) and is in beautiful voice. Despite being a lavish MGM production, <I>Till the Clouds</I> fell out of copyright and into the public domain, so print quality (and even running time) can be variable. <I>--Robert Horton</I> Reader Reviews Amazon lists some 30-odd different releases of Till the Clouds Roll By, but the newly remastered edition from Warner Home Video (ASIN: B000EBD9SA) is the only version worth buying. The cliche that you get what you pay for is definitely true in this case; all other editions available, including this one, are ripped from public domain prints of the film, with greatly varying quality in both video and audio. As other reviewers have pointed out, the 'biopic' story is one of the hokiest that Hollywood ever committed to screen, bearing little resemblance to the life of the real Jerome Kern -- but the great songs just keep coming, and coming. And the Warner remaster is filled with important extras that you won't want to miss.

Til The Clouds Roll By Available from Amazon Price: $4.99 Updated on 11-27-2008.

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