Higher and Higher (1943)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

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.

The Rodgers and Hart musical opened on Broadway in 1940. In 1943 it became the film which launched Frank Sinatra albeit only one song from the play and only one performer, Jack Haley from the play. Its cinematic delights include torch song icon Helen Morgan not singing a torch song as the genre's doyenne, merely listening in silence to Frank Sinatra making his successful launch film debut singing the type of song she was responsible for popularizing. Tne film opens with not the first portrayal in a grand house a la UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAINS and DOWNTON ABBEY of the upstairs and downstairs residents but as a musical to stir thought and concept. Agreed the plot is familiar. Familiar names from Jack Haley as the main lead to Mary Wickes, Victor Borge, Mel Torme and Barbara Hale in supporting parts provide cinematic historic reference as filmed younger and fresher as we recall them in the millennium. Despite some repetitive forties movie rut the glorious editing and black and white cinematography and the exciting flameproof exploration as the two aforementioned certainly worth an 8.

While a far cry from a "great musical classic" HIGHER AND HIGHER does have its moments. Most of them are provided by the young Frank Sinatra. As part of the Frnak Sinatra DVD collections, this flimsy musical showcases him well. I kind of liked Sinatra as the youngish, cute and innocent characters he played in this first films and up to FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. That's when he lost the "boyishness" and became a mature actor, which he handled with ease. HIGHER AND HIGHER has a cute plot that's really kind of a fairy tale, but fun. The supporting cast is really good and makes up for the plot line and contrivences. Michelle Morgan is well cast as the scullery maid turned debutante for plot purposes. Never cared for Jack Haley, but everyone else was fun. Look for a young Barbara Hale and Mel Torme. Most of the songs are well done and Sinatra could do no wrong in any of his numbers. My favorite I COULDN'T SLEEP A WINK LAST NIGHT. For some light fun and breezy entertainment, I recommend HIGHER AND HIGHER.

Higher and Higher was one of Rodgers&Hart's lesser Broadway musicals it only had a run of 84 performances on Broadway in 1940. Yet it yielded one of their bigger hits It Never Entered My Mind.Nevertheless except for one minor song, So Disgustingly Rich, the entire Broadway score was scrapped when RKO bought the film rights. Instead a whole new score by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson was written, mostly to accommodate one Francis Albert Sinatra who was making his feature film debut.Sinatra who had done some vocal cameos in previous films, takes a leaf from the page of his singing rival Bing Crosby. When Bing did his feature film debut in The Big Broadcast, he played Bing Crosby. Frank Sinatra took on the role of Frank Sinatra and I can't think of anyone who could have done a better job. The Chairman of the Board is billed third here behind stars Jack Haley and Michele Morgan. He's the butler and she's the scullery maid to Leon Errol. In fact Errol is a millionaire who hasn't paid his help for seven months. Mainly because he's about to go belly up into chapter 11 or so he informs the staff.Errol's a delightful old soul to work for and none of the staff want to lose a good thing. They pool their resources and get Michele Morgan to impersonate Errol's daughter who's over in Switzerland with her mother. The idea being to snag a rich bankroll in the hopes rescuing the family fortune. Only Michele starts looking at another.It's a slight plot and certainly no worse than a whole lot of musicals, but RKO invested this film with a good cast of players. Barbara Hale and Elizabeth Risdon play another débutante and her mother who suspect something's not right, Victor Borge is a fortune seeking no account, Dooley Wilson, Paul Hartman, Grace Hartman, Marcy McGuire, Mel Torme and Mary Wickes, play others of the Errol household staff. Not a bad bunch at all.Sinatra sang three good ballads all of them had some kind of commercial success, The Music Stopped, A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening, and I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night. The last one was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song, but lost to Alice Faye's You'll Never Know.1943 was the year of the Musician's Union Strike against the recording industry. To get their material out, Frank Sinatra recorded the songs from Higher and Higher with an acapella chorus for Columbia. Bing Crosby recorded songs from his film Dixie in the same manner for Decca. Both of them were denounced by the president of the union, James C. Petrillo as strikebreakers and both did not cross the picket line again. The strike wasn't settle completely until 1944 although Decca broke ranks earlier from the other record companies and settled earlier than Columbia, RCA Victor and the others.The strike provided some anxious moments for Sinatra. He had just left the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra when the strike was called. It closed off a needed venue for his artistry when he wasn't sure whether leaving Dorsey would prove to be a right career move. Fortunately Higher and Higher was received well a legend was launched.

As a lover of all kinds of music spanning many era's, I can safely say that Frank Sinatra is far and away my personal favourite and arguably the best male vocalist of all time.When Higher and Higher was made back in 1944, Sinatra was still working on his craft. He had a typical 1940's Big Band voice, no different really from the likes of Ray Ebberly, Johnny Desmond or Dick Haymes but he was better in many ways. He had yet to develop his own distinctive sound which would become instantly recognisable and would eventually make him the singing sensation of the 20th century. Yet in this largely forgettable romantic comedy, the tools are there and you are starting to see the true craftsman at work.Sinatra played himself, which I thought was a mistake as the love stories would have worked better if he was in character and completely detached from his true self. At the time Frank was happily married to his first wife and was already the father of two, yet the script announces his engagement to the lovely Barbara Hale (of Perry Mason fame.) Obviously RKO thought very little of unimportant crimes such as bigamy.Despite these flagrant liberties taken with Frank's personal life, the film is redeemed as he is given perfect chance to prove to us just why he was the most popular singer of the war years with powerful ballads like, 'I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night,' and, 'A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening.'What was a double treat for me was that another one of my all time favourite singers also featured in the cast. Mel Torme was an excellent artist but, 'The Man with the Velvet Voice' was not really given much opportunity in this vehicle to show us what a great singer he really was.However despite the great songs expertly executed by the man himself, and excellent performances by the entire cast, nothing seems to rescue this film from drab dullness.I think it's main failing was a rather weak and transparent plot, but hell..... if it past a dreary hour or so and took your mind off the horrors and reality of the war, then it had done what it had set out to do.