The Toast of New Orleans is a long way from perfect, but anybody who loves opera and classical music and who is a fan of Mario Lanza will enjoy it a lot. As a lifelong fan of opera and classical music and who likes Lanza's voice a great deal, The Toast of New Orleans was very enjoyable to me.As the review summary says, it's mainly the music and the performance of Mario Lanza that makes The Toast of New Orleans worth viewing. The music is just glorious, Be My Love became Lanza's signature song and not only is it a melodically beautiful song sung beautifully but it does stir up the emotions a fair bit. There are a number of operatic arias from the likes of Carmen and La Traviata(two of the finest operas ever written) and they are guaranteed to delight opera and musical fans. The Madama Butterfly duet scene is truly unforgettable. The music score is just lovely as well. Lanza as ever is in magnificent voice(one of the loveliest and most distinctive tenor voices ever) and proves himself to be a very likable leading man, his acting looking more comfortable than in his debut, That Midnight Kiss.Kathryn Grayson is by no means inferior, she radiates in charm and sings like an angel, while David Niven is wonderfully suave and Rita Moreno turns up in a super dance number, that's excitingly choreographed and exuberantly danced. The Toast of New Orleans also looks grand, with lavish sets and bright colourful costumes and the whole film is very lovingly photographed. The script is appropriately witty and amusing and has a good deal of heart.Where The Toast of New Orleans is let down is in the story, which again like That Midnight Kiss is silly and wafer-thin, except that the story is even more predictable than the story for that film and occasionally drags, I do agree that it's more an excuse to string as many operatic scenes together. J. Carrol Naish tries far too hard for laughs that he comes over as unfunny and obnoxious. Some of the more romantic scenes are a little cold as well, the Madama Butterfly duet is just fine in this regard but Lanza and Grayson's chemistry in That Midnight Kiss, from personal opinion, was warmer and more natural.All in all, a nice film and worth seeing for Lanza and the music. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Hokey almost beyond belief but also bright and colorful this can be enjoyed in a mindless way. The story is meaningless anyway since the picture serves merely as an excuse to highlight both Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza's voices and on that basis it succeeds well. As for the rest of the movie it provides a very young Rita Moreno one of her first roles of any size as Mario's wharf-side spitfire girl, she performs well and has a nice dance number with James Mitchell. David Niven does what he can to make something out of his nothing role as Kathryn's benefactor and his dignity does much to balance out the overacting hamminess of J. Carrol Naish's Uncle Nicky. The real reason to watch this though is a great deal of good music highlighted by the beautiful Be My Love.

This is a variation on the much repeated love story in which a cloistered upper class girl must choose between marrying a safe but dull man of her class or a dashing Romeo rogue. Examples include some of MGM's most popular films of the '30s and '40s,such as "Gone with the Wind", "Captain Blood" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood", as well as the poorly received musical "The Pirate". In "The Belle of New York", Fred Astaire's character incorporates both of these elements. Thus, the conflict for Vera Ellen involves trying to reformulate his character so as to bring out the best mix for her(every woman's fantasy!).That is also what this love story is about:making a gentleman as well as a talented opera singer out of a boisterous rough hewn bayou fisherman with a golden singing voice(Mario Lanza), without making him too dull and unromantic.The film begins with the festivities surrounding the annual blessing of the fishing fleet of a small early 20th century bayou fishing village. Evidently, the village mayor has contracted to have an opera star(Kathryn Grayson) and her manager/escort(David Niven) arrive for this festival. Mario spends too long looking at the beautiful Kathryn and grounds his uncle's boat so that they miss having it blessed with holy water: a bad omen, as things turn out. Mario wants to impress Kathryn the only way he knows how: by impulsively joining in her song, and later practically forcing her to join in the local folk dance. This makes Kathryn look foolish twice over. Is that any way to catch a woman of her upper class breeding? Certainly not, but subsequent events might make her change her mind. After his uncle's boat is wrecked in a storm, Mario reluctantly gives up fishing for a possible career as an opera singer.He is groomed as Kathryn's costar, but only after he gets an education on how to behave around upper class opera patrons. His relationship with Kathryn ocillates from cold to warm and back. She is a very difficult woman to consistently please or figure out! Meanwhile, they both do much singing, solo and as a duet, not actually a lot of heavy opera until the finale "Madame Butterfly" performance. At one point, Kathryn asks the unemotional Niven to marry her, apparently to resolve the conflict in her mind about how to respond to Mario's strong romantic overtures.Now, for the very puzzling behavior of Kathryn during and after their "Madame Butterfly" love duet. Obviously, she often looks very anguished and is trying to push Mario away during most of this performance, in contrast to what she should have been doing. Some have interpreted this as the real Kathryn reacting to the real Mario, reflecting her well known aversion to his advances toward her, garlic eating, and other rude behaviors between takes. I can't believe MGM would allow this to show so blatantly, although it may have been a contributing factor. Rather, I favor the following interpretation as being the dominant explanation: Before this performance, Kathryn, as well as several of Mario's village friends complain that he has become too much of a gentleman, afraid of showing his impulsive rogue persona that village girls found so irresistible. Basically, she's playing hard to get, again, hoping the old Mario will break through his gentlemanly facade to sweep her off her feet. Meanwhile, Mario has gotten a hint from Niven that he should do this. Symbolically,this happens in his forceful treatment of her during their duet, a subsequent chase around the stage area, and when he breaks through her locked dressing room. End of story. Yes, Kathryn's character was a complicated and difficult woman to fathom, which some reviewers interpret as bad acting. Not so!I found J Carrol Naish an entertaining and sometimes hilarious 'sidekick' for Mario, providing comedic relief throughout, along with the Mario-Kathryn unlikely pairing comedy. His character remained unimpressed with NO high society culture,refusing to be transformed by it, as Mario had been. Naish had been incorporated into several of Fox's high profile Latino-oriented musicals of the early '40s, again as a somewhat humorous supporting character. David Niven retains his British upper class reserve and charm throughout, as Kathryn's chaperon, overseer and probable lover: the alternative safe choice for Kathryn as a husband.

Mario Lanza's second film bursting with energy and musical talents with Kathryn Grayson in old New Orleans. Mario is discovered by David Niven and teamed up with Kathryn and they are the Toast of New Orleans. Mario is the scruffy seaman and his partner J. Carrol Nash, who provides the comedy. The music includes arias from Aida, Madame Butterfly, and La Boheme, etc. Mario does imitations of various people and this is a delight to all. The glorious voice of Lanza still lingers on!