This film starts out like gangbusters with a colorful dramatic opening in technicolor with great musical numbers from Show Boat, whose musical numbers were written by Jerome Kern - the subject of the film . The first 20 minutes are lovely.The film gradually starts to slow down into a rather bore. The acting is excellent from everybody including the now forgotten Robert Walker, the always capable Van Heflin, and many others including the great Tony Martin, Angela Lansbury, Cyd Charisse, Lena Horne and Lucille Bremer. Judy Garland is almost unrecognizable and excellent.Perhaps the greatest actress in the movie is the young Joan Wells, who is absolutely startling and for some reason had a very short film career. I can't find out anything about her online.The movie also misses greatness by its failure to connect the central conflict in the movie in a logical way.The ending is magnificent with a classic MGM song and dance sequence choreographed by the out-of-this-world Busby Berkeley. A young Frank Sinatra brings the house down at the end.Berkeley's arrangements alone almost turn this into a great movie but for me, this is a just-miss classic but one that is worth seeing.

During the period of the late 1940's and 50's, Hollywood decide to treat the public to musical biopics, and because of censorship difficulties, demands from living relatives and ethnic considerations, most of them--whether dealing with Larry Hart, George Gershwin, Cole Porter or in this case, Jerome Kern, were whitewashed and innocuous life stories, skirting life episodes that might have given the films some genuine punch.While there are enough well-staged MGM candy-colored musical treats to keep this biopic afloat, this odd and frequently dull postwar musical features a dreadfully miscast (but popular in 1946) Robert Walker as the tunesmith Kern (Walker was also stuck in another film as Johannes Brahms);the fine actor Van Heflin acts as Kern's mentor (a person who never existed in real life) and there is far too much repetitive dialogue between the two men used to pad out the 137 minute running time.Definitely worth watching are Judy Garland (in brilliant joyous numbers staged by her husband at the time, Vincent Minnelli), June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, and other major singing stars in tiny cameos--a word of warning about the film print quality: years ago, someone at MGM forgot to renew the copyright, and this film drifted into public domain; many mediocre copies were produced with bad sound and poor color, usually included in bargain collections or close-out stores for a buck. There is now an official studio copy available, and because the Technicolor is such an important part of the film's impact, it is recommended you avoid the cheapies and get the real thing--and gape in wonder as a very young Frank Sinatra, clad in white tuxedo, standing alone on a giant white mountain of a column, sings "Old Man River." The mind boggles!

This film has a star studded cast including Robert Walker as Jerome Kern who wrote the music for Show Boat and many other famous popular songs. However, all the numbers from Show Boat including "Old Man River" sang by Frank Sinatra are poor renditions compared to those in the film "Show Boat". As a matter of fact I was tempted to advance the movie quite a few times....it was absolutely tedious, and this is a senior talking - I usually thrive on songs from Broadway musicals. Yet Robert Walker and Van Heflin gave good performances. The first time I saw it I simply forgot about it….thus I ended up watching it again, it deserves to be seen again.

This is a flawed but underrated biopic on the life of musical genius Jerome Kern, who penned some of the best songs in the history of musicals.Although it is two and a quarter hours long, its length isn't the problem. For my liking, I found the story rather creaky and sometimes pedestrian, and while a lot of attention has gone into making the dancing, style and singing perfect, less is done perfecting the script, which felt a little underdeveloped. Also, while his final scene with Van Heflin was very touching, Robert Walker was a little bland in the title role.All that said though, there is a lot to enjoy, particularly the truly marvellous songs. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Ol' Man River", "Can't help lovin' dat man" and "How'd you like to spoon me?" really do stand out. The choreography is efficient and often dazzling, and the colourful sets and costumes are fabulous. With the exception of Walker, all the other performances were top-notch, though I do think everyone has done better. Van Heflin is great as James, Cyd Charise shows off her wonderful dancing(and legs) to perfection, Angela Lansbury is another definite highlight, and Judy Garland is a delight. Plus Dinah Shore is sublime in a rare treat. The real surprise though was Frank Sinatra, I know some have complained of "Ol' Man River" not being sung by a black person, like in Showboat, but Sinatra's crooning and spontaneous charm more than compensates in a knockout performance.All in all, has its flaws, but it is underrated and worth the look. 7.5/10 Bethany Cox