DEEP IN MY HEART

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 877, 25 May 1956, Page 19

DEEP IN MY HEART

(M.G.M.) YEEP IN MY HEART, directed by Stanley Donen, is largely an exception to the comic note this week, for the songs of Sigmund Romberg, whose life story the film tells, were never meant to. be treated as a joke. I'm sure Mr. Romberg, at any rate, took their sentiment pretty seriously, and his speech at the end of the film had me just a little uncomfortable. All the same, I wouldn’t have missed this 11,000-footer for anything, for right in the middle was the most succulent comic plum of the week: a one-man run-through of one of his own shows by Mr. Romberg (played by Jose Ferrer), which had me helpless. Actually, as musical biographies go, this is quite a good one which doesn’t seem as long as it is-a fair enough test. Mr. Ferrer. who never does a shoddy job, makes a credible and generally likeable composer, supported principally by Helen Traubel as his friend Anna Mueller, Merle Oberon (how nice to see her again) as Dorothy Donnelly, who wrote some of his shows, and Doe Avedon as the girl he married. The incidents from his private life, especially the love story, are worth telling and well told; and the best of the numbers from his shows, presented by an impressive collection of guest stars, are exciting to watch and listen to. To select two from the many: personally I never tire of Cyd Charisse ‘and Ann Miller, whose dance numbers ate outstanding.