THE MELODY LINGERS ON: The Great Songwriters and Their Movie Musicals

by Roy Hemming ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 1986

Absolutely loverly guide to the leading songwriters of movie musicals from the Golden Age, and everything a fan could desire from a critic and cultural historian, including good sense and great taste. These are the classic composers--Hollywood immortals all--whose songs come back like a lump in the throat or a big bloomy feeling in the chest. They include Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Ralph Rainger, Harry Warren, Richard Whiting, Jimmy McHugh and Richard Rodgers. Also covered, but in shorter studies, are Arthur Schwartz, Nacio Herb Brown, James Van Heusen, Jule Styne, Frank Loesser, and Hoagy Carmichael. What happened to the 30 minutes of Harold Arlen numbers trimmed from Judy Garland's A Star Is Born, the picture which is Arlen's crowning score? Well, after a vast and costly search, much of the lost footage has been restored and now richly underscores the motivation of the story's characters. Hemming examines not only the film scores but their Broadway originals also when there is one, what got dropped, what survived, what new was added. Sometimes unexpected marriages arise, with Schwartz actually doing the score for Warner Brothers' disappointing life of Cole Porter, Night and Day. And it's terrific to be taken once more through the Bob Hope. Shirley Ross duet on the movingly nostalgic romantic reminiscence of ""Thanks for the Memory"" from Mitchell Leisen and Rainger's The Big Broadcast of 1938. Much more than just another movie book, this is great, good fun.

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Newmarket--dist. by Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION