Night Song (1948)

Load of rubbish!!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Getting lucky in catching the charming 1951 movie Two Tickets to Broadway,I decided to keep a look out for other similar titles appearing on the BBC. Finding the only DVD around to be a Warner Archives edition that would cost £15 to import (!) I was happy to spot that the BBC iPlayer had an obscure gem,which led to me getting ready to perform a morning song.The plot:Becoming blind from an accident, classical musician Dan Evans sinks into dark seedy clubs where Evans is paid in beer and burgers. Catching some of his act at a slightly more up-market club, socialite Cathy Mallory asks Evans if she can become his benefactor.Still bitter about his blindness,Evans rejects the offer.Shortly after his exchange with Mallory,Evans quits the club. Keen to track him down,Mallory gets bandleader Chick Morgan to arrange a secret encounter between them. Wanting Evans to feel that she understands where he is coming from,Mallory changes her name to Mary Willey,and pretends to be blind.View on the film:Learning to play the piano for the film, Dana Andrews gives an excellent performance as Evans,whose joy behind a piano Andrews makes sing,which masks the blind bitterness that Andrews covers Evans eyes with off-stage. Trying to stop Evans from catching her real sight, Merle Oberon gives a terrific performance as Mallory,with Oberon lapping up Mallory's Melodrama glamour with a breezy,loved up atmosphere.Taking some big leaps in the credibility of Evans and Mallory's romance,the screenplay by Frank Fenton/Dick Irving Hyland & DeWitt Bodeen shade some of the gaps in by allowing Evans to open up about the darkness around him,which never becomes bitterly melodramatic,thanks to the writers retaining a playfulness between Evans and Mallory. Crisply showing Andrews play Evans music,director John Cromwell and cinematographer Lucien Ballard looks into his eyes by engulfing the nightclubs in striking low- lighting which reflect Evans view. Stepping on the beach,Cromwell gives the romance a stylish elegance of overlapping images opening the love between Evans and Mallory,as the night song sings.

Thanks to a lovely cast and good direction by John Cromwell, "Night Song," pure hokum from 1947, manages to hold one's interest and be an entertaining film. It's the story of Dan (Dana Andrews), a composer who was blinded after the war and has now given up on life. He plays with his friend's (Hoagy Carmichael) group, and one night, a socialite (Merle Oberon) hears Dan play one of his own compositions and wants to talk with him. She discovers that he's a bitter, unhappy man. She wants to help, so she, too, pretends she's blind and meets him on the beach. She asks him to help her with her piano-playing and urges him to write.There is some wonderful music in this film, played by Artur Rubinstein, and Eugene Ormandy conducts the orchestra. The "Piano Concerto in C Minor" is actually composed by Leith Stevens, and it's quite good. Carmichael shines, singing "Who Killed 'Er" and "One for My Baby." Ethel Barrymore provides fine support as the sarcastic Miss Willey. It's an unusual role for her. Normally, she's a dowager without much sense of humor. Here, she still comes off like a dowager, but her wisecracks are effective nevertheless.There are some major holes in this film - I find Merle Oberon's speaking voice and accent very unique, and I don't know why Dan didn't recognize it immediately when she is introduced as her real self. I also didn't totally buy Dan's reactions at the end; I would have expected him to become quite angry.Still, there's something about "Night Song" that you can't help liking. If you're a fan of Merle Oberon's and/or Dana Andrews, don't miss it. Lucky for me, I love Hoagy Carmichael as well.

This is an awful film as far as passive but discerning viewers are concerned. Oberon, in full histrionic mother-of-Roger-Moore's-left-eyebrow mode, plays a socialite who plays blind in order to woo a contumaciously sightless nightclub pianist.Cue lots of bordering-on-domestic-violence, but acceptable at the time, altercations; and gauzy close-ups of big tears rolling down Miss Oberon's (facial) cheeks.But in its favour the film, although potentially offensive in its approach, is sumptuous enough in its production values to wallow in forgivably. Plus, of course, Barrymore's cynical world-beater routine brings back from the edge any film in which it is deployed.

If there's one thing to be said for NIGHT SONG, it's that at least it does put the spotlight on some nice classical music. But you have to wonder what they were thinking when they dreamed up a story that has blind pianist DANA ANDREWS being wooed by a woman (MERLE OBERON) who, in order to get close to him, pretends that she is blind too. Then, when he gets his sight back (thanks to a successful operation the wealthy woman sponsors), he sees her for the first time but feels guilty about the "other woman" whom he met when he was without sight. Well, with a plot like that, you know there's going to be an inevitable happy ending somehow--or is there? If that sounds like a silly description of the plot, it is. But that's the story we're supposed to swallow if we want to get any enjoyment out of the whole thing.MERLE OBERON looks lovely (but hardly changes her expression when she's supposed to be wildly in love with Andrews), and DANA ANDREWS looks a little uncomfortable feigning blindness. HOAGY CARMICHEL is a welcome presence as the owner of the joint where Oberon catches Andrews playing piano, and ETHEL BARRYMORE gives another one of her arch performances as Oberon's knowing aunt.John Cromwell directs it in leisurely fashion but it all adds up to an improbable tale with both stars looking a bit uncomfortable in what can only be termed an "unbelievable" tale. The concert music supplied by Leith Stevens is underwhelming even given its symphonic treatment.