IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE SILVER LINING........
M. farrell | sherman oaks, california USA | 09/04/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"....you'd think this is where you would find it. i mean, this is the import of the o.s.t. -- not the domestic version which they released a few years back with something pretty important missing...i'll get to that in a minute. you see, this movie is not and was not meant to be a memorial to a man named jerome david kern who happened to have written the most gorgeous melodies any person who writes melodies would have never even dreamed of writing and so they didn't. mr. kern did. he passed away in l945 and the mgm film called 'till the clouds roll by' opened at radio city music hall towards the very end of the year l946. more than a couple of decades later, when someone from the mgm legal department was supposed to have re-registered the property...well, the legal mind was somewhere else that day and so the property became and still is 'public domain'. when video became part of our language, you could easily find a copy of 'till the clouds roll by' for very little. and when you got it home you realized why it was so inexpensive. since the company that released it did not have the master reels, they simply produced copies of copies and you were the lucky person that day to get number 7,299 in the extended play vhs mode. it was washed out and it had nothing to do with the clouds rolling by....and then when cds came into being..well, let's start making some of them....nobody owns the rights to the property....we got squatters rights. so they did just that. and i bought one of them. they just couldn't seem to get clearance from one person.....the man who closes the film with a bombastic rendition of 'ole man river'. and so frank sinatra's name is not on that cover. when dvds came in, same story. they got to use sinatra's name and the clip but the copy was so bad they actually sold it as a double feature and it did not get top billing. somewhere along the way, mgm decided to go into their vaults and get the real reels and put it on laser disc...restored and remastered. that one, of course, never made it to tape, dvd or cd or any set of initials you can think of. i've seen the laser disc copy, more than once, and it's stunning. now we get to the import. the one you're looking at advertised above. it is probably the best you're going to get....and the sound is better than it is on any other cd with the same title....they didn't get all the songs in....but you really have to know and love to movie to realize you've been cheated out of the 'kalua' song and segment...but otherwise it's a class act and they even rewrote the title of the closing song and spelled it 'OLD man river'. let me put it this way...if you love music...music from this era...music that will transcend all eras in all the centuries to come....then you must love jerome kern. if the name doesn't mean anything to you...you're shopping in the wrong department. the songs and the performances of them that fill this cd will fill your lives even when you feel there's no room left for glorious music to make any difference in your existence. still looking for that silver lining? then you deserve to find it and your best shot is with that import. they wouldn't waste it on any ordinary, run-of-the-mill, domestic, non re-registered version. i don't think the people who ran mgm ever really knew how terrific this film was. maybe they were afraid people wouldn't go see it because it would be a 'downer'. you know, the guy just died not too long ago. i'm not in the mood for that. personally, i have never met anyone in anyplace at anytime who wasn't in the mood for jerome kern's music. it think the gang at metro overlooked the fact that kern's genius has survived beautifully and the legal eagles at the studio forgot what day it was back in l952. for them, the clouds will never roll by."
A fabulous score, great performances. Van Johnson is great.
pola baker | Great Neck, New York | 08/09/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I agree that Jerome Kern melodies are among the best, a tie
with Gershwin and Harold Arlen. I could listen to his songs all
day. I loved the film, but i have yet to see the remastered
DVD, and the bonus songs that were included. My favorite
sequences are Van Johnson and Lucille Bremer ( two redheads)
singing one more dance/I won't dance. I read in IMDB.com that
Lucille Bremer's voice was dubbed. Still she's great. She has
a screen resemblence to Bette Davis, but more talented as far as
singing and dancing are concerned. Van Johnson what a great
presence, the way he dances and sings. What a sexual presence.
The other sequence is the finale with such great songs by Lena
Horne, Frank Sinatra, Tony Martin, Wilde Twins etc. Too bad
Judy Garland was not present here, but she was interpreting the role of Marilyn Miller in segments directed by her husband
Vincent Minelli, and she was pregnant with Liza. Two great numbers. Fabulous as a Ziegfield Star in the song WHO, and good
in the ballad LOOK FOR THESILVER LINING. Looking forward to the
bonus song by Judy Garland in the remastered DVD. The Showboat
sequence is great and what songs. Lena Horne is great in
Can't help loving that man of mine, but I still like better
AVA GARDNER singing that song in the movie SHOWBOAT.
The score of this movie is superb."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1