The Great Caruso *** (1951, Mario Lanza, Ann Blyth, Dorothy Kirsten) – Classic Movie Review 10,217

Director Richard Thorpe’s 1951 MGM Technicolor musical drama The Great Caruso stars Mario Lanza in a quasi-biopic that depicts the life of the great Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) in typical Hollywood fashion.

It won an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording (Douglas Shearer) and was nominated for Best Costume Design, Color (Helen Rose, Gile Steele) and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (Johnny Green and Peter Herman Adler).

The poverty-to-wealth story, in which the son of a poor Italian peasant family, loves Musetta Barretto (Yvette Duguay) in his home town of Naples, and then after an initial struggle, rises to worldwide fame and marries the beautiful, rich young woman Dorothy Benjamin, (Ann Blyth), the daughter of Park Benjamin (Carl Benton Reid), one of the Metropolitan Opera’s patrons, distorts the less colourful aspects of the real Caruso’s life.

However, music lovers will certainly enjoy the 27 songs and operatic excerpts beautifully sung by Lanza, with stars from the Met, and with outstanding work on the musical direction by Johnny Green (composer background score / musical supervisor) and Peter Herman Adler (conductor operatic numbers).

For the real thing, many of Caruso’s recordings are available and now beautifully restored, as he was, happily, one of the first singing stars to make gramophone records.

Also in the cast are Dorothy Kirsten, Jarmila Novotna, Carl Benton Reid, Eduard Franz, Richard Hageman, Ludwig Donath, Alan Napier, Paul Javor, Carl Milletaire, Shepard Menken, Vincent Renno and Nestor Paiva.

It is written by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig, suggested by Dorothy Caruso’s biography of her husband. However, the opening credits state: ‘The events, characters and firms depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual firms is purely coincidental.’

The conductor Richard Hageman, who plays Carlo Santi, knew Caruso and led performances with him at the Metropolitan Opera, including the 1918 War Relief Benefit re-created in the film.

Ann Blyth was born on 16 August 1927 in Mount Kisco, New York.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,217

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