Deep in My Heart (1954)

Simply A Masterpiece

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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

As Hungarian composer Sigmund Romberg, who made a big splash in New York City in the 1920s writing the music for an array of hit Broadway shows, José Ferrer sings, dances and cuts up like never before, even dropping to one knee for an Al Jolson impression. Ferrer gives an appealing performance (particularly in his finale at Carnegie Hall), but less of Ferrer is more; he's certainly a trouper, but Ferrer is on the screen far too much. He's just about upstaged, anyhow, by a virtual roll call of MGM talent (Ann Miller, Howard Keel, Jane Powell, and Gene Kelly dancing with real-life brother Fred), all appearing in the kind of glorified cameos the studio excelled at during this period. Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell share a camp-exotica number heightened by surprisingly erotic choreography, and Powell's operetta number from "Maytime" is beautifully presented. The film is short on melodrama (which is a plus), and the final sequence--capped with a nice performance of "When I Grow Too Old to Dream"--is heartfelt. But overall, this is strictly pot luck for star-watchers, one with hokey voice-overs, characters who come and go at whim, and spinning newspaper headlines marking time. ** from ****

While it can be said that without question MGM cornered the market in producing high quality musicals, that is not to say that all of those musicals were good. It seems to me that the quality varied a great deal, and that after a while audiences tired of seeing the same old stars trotted out for virtually every major musical.Having said that, I would have also say that "Deep In My Heart" is one of MGM's better musicals. Yes, you see quite a few of those "same old stars", but here there are enough...well, you might call them gimmicks...to keep you interested. For example, when did you ever see Gene Kelly doing a peppy dance number...with his real brother Fred? Or Rosemary Clooney singing and dancing...with her husband Jose Ferrer (star of the film). And then again, how often did you see Jose Ferrer singing and dancing? Yes, there are a number of things to keep you interested here. Among them are the "cameos" for the musical numbers -- (in addition to those already mentioned) Jane Powell, Vic Damone, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, and Tony Martin.In terms of the acting cast, Jose Ferrer was different enough here that I must reevaluate his talents. He really does rather nicely on the song and dance numbers. Merle Oberon is around as a lyricist, but her talents are rather wasted. Helen Traubel -- opera singer -- does a nice turn as a friend of Romberg's. Walter Pidgeon has a bit of a role as one of the theatrical Shuberts, and Paul Henreid appears briefly as Florenz Ziegfeld. Paul Stewart and Jim Backus do nicely in supporting roles, though Backus is underused.The problem with this film -- for modern audiences -- is that the music is very outdated. And most audiences today do not have very diverse musical tastes.

This is such a strange film for MGM to have made in 1954, given the decline in the interest of studio head Dore Schary in actually making new musicals.... they made an old musical instead, and used up the dwindling contracts of their roster of stars who were about to be abandoned. It is almost the "That's Entertainment" of operetta scenes and using Sigmund Romberg as the excuse to link together well staged and quite beautiful sequences that showcase many of his tunes. As played by Jose Ferrer, Siggy comes across as yet another overweight (overfed) mommies boy composer with an un natural attachment to the usual Euro cliché parent in which MGM specialised. I guess MGM couldn't get Danny Thomas and Jose owed them some weeks work like the guest stars we see. The production values are splendid and by far the best scenes are the most erotic Desert Song sequence with Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell and the very funny Anne Miller scene from Artists and Models recycling all the Singin In the Rain clothes.