June 3, 2025 • 47 mins
George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive joins host Tim Millard to discuss the remarkable restoration and reconstruction of the 1945 film "Rhapsody in Blue," now available on Blu-ray in its complete 161-minute version for the first time in 80 years.
• Warner Bros.' restoration team combined original camera negative footage with a composite fine-grain master to reconstruct the complete film as director Irving Rapper intended
• The rediscovered 5-minute Porgy and Bess sequence featuring Anne Brown's full performance of "Summertime" replaces the truncated 1:45 version shown in theaters
• The Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra deserves special recognition for their outstanding musical performances and arrangements by Ray Heindorf
• Many actual Gershwin associates appear in the film, including Paul Whiteman's orchestra, Oscar Levant, and Al Jolson performing "Swanee"
• The film successfully portrays Gershwin's dedication to creating uniquely American music that incorporated jazz and diverse cultural influences
• This frame-by-frame restoration delivers unprecedented audio and visual quality, surpassing even the original theatrical presentation
• Robert Alda delivers a charismatic performance as George Gershwin, supported by excellent performances from Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, and Charles Coburn
Purchase Link:
RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1945) [EXTENDED PRE-RELEASE VERSION] Blu-ray
The Extras Facebook page
The Extras Twitter
Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group
As an Amazon Affiliate, The Extras may receive a commission for purchases through our purchase links. There is no additional cost to you, and every little bit helps us in the production of the podcast. Thanks in advance.
Otaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. tim@theextras.tv
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Millard (00:03):
Hello and welcome to the Expos.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me today is George
Feltenstein from the WarnerArchive.
Hi, George.
George Feltenstein (00:10):
Hi, tim, great to be with you, as always.
Tim Millard (00:13):
Well, let's start off today, George, talking about
this amazing film Rhapsody inBlue ©.
Film Clip (00:44):
BF-WATCH TV 2021.
Tim Millard (01:00):
I just thoroughly enjoyed watching this film.
The restoration is so good andthe music sounds so terrific.
I just I mean, it was just apleasure the whole 161 minutes
now that this film is thislonger version.
It was just so good.
So I think we should talk aboutthat restoration so that people
(01:22):
really understand what makesthis blu-ray so important well,
it's a combination of factors, Ithink.
George Feltenstein (01:32):
First and foremost, as you just
represented, the restorationdone by warner brothers.
Motion picture imaging isamazing and outstanding.
It is a film that was verychallenging for them to work
with because the originalnegative had all sorts of weird
(01:55):
funky damage that required extracare and scanning and in
cleanup and so forth, and wewere actually working with two
film elements.
So this was a reconstruction aswell as a restoration.
When Irving Rapper completedfilming in 1943, this film was,
(02:22):
I would say, probably about 150minutes long, maybe 151.
That was his final cut andWarner Brothers, particularly
Jack Warner, didn't want to takevery expensive films which this
was, films which this was, andput them into the theaters when
(02:49):
there was so much wartimeactivity and he felt it could do
better business if they held itback because they'd made such a
substantial investment in theproduction.
So we did not have any materialthat indicated there was a
longer version.
I had read there was.
In my research putting togethera George and Ira Gershwin in
(03:15):
Hollywood 2 CD set for our jointventure with Rhino Records
years ago, I had gotten my handson some playback discs, found
longer versions of certain songsand of course I found the
Overture disc and it was onlyrecently that I learned that the
Overture was only used in theNew York and LA premiere
(03:38):
engagements.
And we did use that overture onour DVD version.
But finding this longer versionseemed impossible.
We checked everything, or so Iwas told.
Everything was checked.
What Warner Brothers did wassomething that was done by all
(04:01):
the studios.
All the studios were so behindour fighting men and women
overseas during World War IIthat they made films available
to the armed forces long beforethey got a theatrical release to
theaters in the United Statesand elsewhere.
So the original cut of Rhapsodyin Blue was shown to the Army
(04:28):
and Army Air Corps and the Navyand so forth and so on during, I
think, late 1943 and 1944.
So there was this longerversion and I went down to USC
and went through the WarnerBrothers archive files that are
maintained at the USC Library ofCinema and Television and
(04:50):
confirmed that was the length ofRapper's Cut and also that they
had indeed sent it overseas.
And when it was time to releasethe movie and the New York and
LA premiere engagements were, Ithink, at the end of June 1945,
so just about 80 years ago tonow they had cut about 12, 13
(05:15):
minutes out of the film.
The film was mounted originallyon 18 reels and we found out
that some of the reels, and wefound out that some of the reels
of the original negative wereonly like 300 feet out of a
possible thousand.
So the reel count was the same.
(05:36):
But what we needed to do is afootage count and we brought in
the original camera negativefrom the Library of Congress,
which had.
We brought in the originalcamera negative from the Library
of Congress, which had quite abit of damage, but of course it
was the short version.
That's all anyone has seen for80 years until now.
(06:06):
We went through some prints andfine grains that were at UCLA,
which is where Warner BrothersStudio Nitrate holdings have
been cared for and on depositsince 1979.
And we did what past colleaguesdidn't do, which was to bring
in everything and measure it.
And sure enough there was abeautiful composite fine grain.
And sure enough there was abeautiful composite fine grain.
For those who don't know, afine grain is basically a print
(06:29):
made off the negative withextreme care for protection and
it used a fine grain stock hence.
(06:49):
And composite fine-grain meansthat the audio is also on that
fine-grain composite master.
So we had a source now for allthe picture that had been cut
out and all the sound.
So what we did was we scannedthe original negative, which of
course was cut.
We scanned the composite finegrain of the longer version, we
(07:10):
laid the longer version down asa bed.
Both elements were scanned at4K and we replaced 90% of what
was in the longer fine grainwith the camera negative
material and that enabled us tohave the full film, as the
director intended.
(07:31):
And most of the added footageis somewhat inconsequential, but
making up for that is somethingof enormous importance and
meaning, and that is that in thereleased version of the film,
(07:55):
gershwin's Porgy and Bess wasgiven, I think, a minute and 45
seconds in a very brief halfchorus of summertime sung by the
original actress who playedBess in Porgy and Bess, anne
Brown.
But in the original longerversion it was a five minute
sequence on Porgy and Bess andAnne Brown did a full rendition
(08:22):
of the song.
Two choruses.
Good evening all Hi hi.
Film Clip (08:29):
Has one of you seen Joe, my Joe, for I have a date
with him here.
It couldn't be that I havemissed him.
I am a little early for him.
Maybe has one of you seen Joe,my love and my, my Joe, my show.
George Feltenstein (09:09):
Now the character of Bess in Porgy and
Bess is not the main vocalistfor Summertime, but the
character of Bess does do areprise later on in the opera.
But this was truly a find andthe whole Porgy and Bess
(09:30):
sequence there's even a buttonon it because Ruben Mamoulian,
who had directed the stageproduction, directed the stage
productions of Oklahoma so manyother important things as well
as Ruben Mamoulian did somereally amazing films and he
plays himself and we didn't knowthat because nobody could see
(09:51):
this version until now.
So putting everything backtogether as a reconstruction was
an enormous effort.
There were damaged areas in thecamera negative that needed a
special amount of attention andso the picture went through
(10:12):
basically a manualframe-by-frame restoration and
the audio was not just achallenge for our archival audio
team but it was also veryrewarding because they told me
(10:33):
that there was more frequencyresponse in that optical audio
track than they usually see froma film that was shot in 1943.
From a film that was shot in1943.
So with the picture restoredand reconstructed and with the
audio restored, this newpresentation is, I think, a
(11:00):
magnificent representation of avery important film in the
history of Warner Brothers.
Tim Millard (11:03):
That's an amazing story, george.
I've heard you talk a littlebit about it, but the way you
laid it out, of how you actuallyuse both versions of the film
the fine grain and the originalreally helped me picture how
that restoration worked and itmakes so much sense now, having
(11:23):
seen it, why it looks so good.
And then this story about theadditional footage in Porgy and
Bess.
That's a great scene.
I'm so glad that that's inthere, and for anybody who had
the DVD or saw the previousversion of the movie, it's
definitely worth getting thisone for all of the reasons you
(11:43):
just laid out and the greataudio as well © BF-WATCH TV 2021
(12:35):
, so so.
(13:04):
I'm just thinking back to thatperformance of Rhapsody in Blue.
The song that is crisp.
I mean the audio is amazing andthe visuals are so terrific.
It really, really pulls you inin that scene.
But I mean the whole movie isfantastic, but that one is just
(13:26):
encapsulates how great thisrelease is.
I think that song.
George Feltenstein (13:32):
George Gershwin passed away from a
brain tumor in 1937.
He was 38 years old and, if youthink of the body of his work
from his very limited lifetime,gershwin's standards are still
being performed today.
Poirier and Bess is performedin opera houses all over the
(13:58):
world and it gets the respectthat it didn't get when it
opened on Broadway in 1935.
Warner Brothers really wantedto pursue Gershwin's life story
and the genesis of the projectbegan as early as 1941.
(14:20):
Some people have assumed thatWarner Brothers made Rhapsody in
Blue as a follow-up to the bigsuccess of Yankee Doodle Dandy
because that was the story ofsongwriter and performer George
M Cohan.
That's not true.
They started working on thisbefore a single frame of footage
(14:46):
was shot for Yankee DoodleDandy.
What needed to be done to getthis into play was, first and
foremost, the approval of theGershwin family.
George's brother, ira, who isportrayed in the movie, was
integral in that GeorgeGershwin's estate belonged to
(15:11):
his mother because GeorgeGershwin died without a will.
So George Gershwin's mother hadto approve the deal as well and
the Gershwins were veryhandsomely compensated for the
use of their music.
But it was also incumbent onthe Warner Brothers legal
(15:31):
department to clear the use ofcompositions that were written
for Broadway shows that becamemovies made by other studios.
So they had to go and getpermission to use I Got Rhythm,
I believe, or Embraceable you.
(15:55):
They were written for GirlCrazy and I believe MGM had
bought the rights to Girl Crazyfrom RKO by that time, and so
all the studios were really coolwith each other when these
kinds of things came up andnobody was being hard-ass and
saying no, we're not going tolet you have that.
(16:15):
The studios all cooperated witheach other when these kinds of
projects came up.
So you had to get clearancesfrom the producers of the
Broadway shows that the songswere written for, and it was an
enormous task and I've gonethrough all that paperwork to
understand it.
Uh.
(16:36):
So also telling GeorgeGershwin's life story, uh,
required really good writing,and initially playwright
Clifford Odets was signed towrite a first treatment on the
(16:59):
screenplay, and I've heard thatOdets' first treatment was like
900 pages.
That may be apocryphal, I don'tknow, but Ira Gershwin was a
consultant on the project at thevery beginning, but it was
actually too painful for him tocontinue on in that role because
(17:22):
he, along with the rest of theworld, was mourning his brother.
George Gershwin had only beendead for four years when this
movie went into production.
So you know, it's an achingwound for any lover of the great
American songbook that GeorgeGershwin's life was curtailed by
(17:45):
a brain tumor.
But the work that he left behindwas so substantial that it
could carry the film andcomposer biopics, as we call
them.
They were made by WarnerBrothers, they were made by
Warner Brothers, they were madeby 20th Century Fox, they were
made by MGM, and usually thelife story of a particular
(18:12):
songwriter is not going to beparticularly interesting, and
and so Clifford Odette'streatment wasn't quite what
Warner Brothers had in mind.
So they brought in new writers,parts of the 1946 film
(18:42):
Humoresque, which is about ayoung violinist growing up on
the Lower East Side, played byJohn Garfield, and his friend is
Oscar Levant.
Well, oscar Levant was GeorgeGershwin's best friend and it's
the George Gershwin-Oscar Levantbanter in Rhapsody in Blue and
(19:08):
it's the George Gershwin OscarLevant banter in Rhapsody in
Blue that is often the highlightof the comedy in the film.
So a lot of that, a lot of theplot devices that Odette's had
come up with, were used later inHumoresque.
But they came up with like afinal list of songs final list
of songs.
And when I had the good fortuneof introducing this new
(19:30):
reconstruction and restorationat the TCM Film Festival, I did
say to the audience there is amember of the cast, so to speak,
here that's not on camera, thatdeserves your attention and
applause and that is the WarnerBrothers Studio Orchestra.
(19:50):
What the Warner Brothers MusicDepartment achieved here,
particularly under the directionof Ray Hindorff, who is the
musical, he did all thearrangements, he put together
that incredible overture.
He had won two Oscars duringhis tenure here, was nominated
(20:13):
for a lot more.
He won Oscars for Yankee DoodleDandy in 1942 and the Music man
in 1962.
He's a brilliantly giftedindividual and, combined with
the instrumentation that he didon the orchestrations, as well
(20:35):
as the underscore of the movie,which was written by Max Steiner
, who used his talents to weaveGershwin melodies in between his
original themes this issomething that wasn't new to Max
Steiner, because he did thesame thing on Casablanca with as
(20:57):
Time Goes by, which he did notwrite, but he wrote his own
music and interwove as time goesby in the themes.
Same thing happened on to adifferent degree Gone with the
Wind, max Steiner wrote hours oforiginal music but used Civil
(21:17):
War songs, for lack of a betterword in the score, and wove them
together.
So you had the Warner BrothersMusic Department on just full
kilter here.
And that's an amazingcontribution to why the film is
(21:40):
so important, because it doeswrite by Gershwin's music.
In terms of the sound and interms of the storytelling,
george Gershwin was successful.
I think he was 20 years oldwhen he had his first hit song,
swanee, with lyrics by IrvingCaesar, and that was introduced
(22:02):
by Al Jolson, and they got AlJolson to reprise his
performance in this movie, whichis really important, and at
that moment in time Al Jolsonhad yet to have his life turned
into a hit movie.
To a hit movie.
(22:27):
1946, the Jolson story was madeat Columbia Pictures and Jolson
, much to his unhappiness, wastoo old to play himself in the
movie.
But he pre-recorded all thesongs and actor Larry Parks
mouthed them.
It was one of the mostsuccessful films of the 1940s
and begat a sequel and also madeJolson popular again to new
audiences.
But when Rhapsody in Blue wasfilmed he was doing radio but he
(22:49):
wasn't the superstar that hehad once been.
Film Clip (22:53):
I've been away from you a long time.
I never thought I'd miss you,so Somehow I feel your love is
real.
Near you I want to be.
The birds are singing, it issong time.
The banjo's strumming soft andlow.
(23:14):
I know that you yearn for me too, swanee.
How I love you, how I love you.
My dear old Swanee, I'd givethe world to be Among the folks
in D-I-X.
I even know my mammy's Waitingfor me, praying for me down by
(23:40):
the Swanee.
The folks up north won't see meno more when I get to that
Swanee show.
George Feltenstein (23:49):
But having people who were associated with
Gershwin performances originallyis one of the real precious
gems of this movie.
And specifically you have PaulWhiteman and his orchestra who
(24:09):
performed the original Rhapsodyin Blue at Aeolian Hall in New
York City in 1924.
Paul Whiteman is in the movieplaying himself.
There are some of his originalband members in the onscreen
orchestra recreating what theyplayed when the work was first
(24:34):
performed.
There's the concerto in F andOscar Levant referred to it in
real life, you know, to Georgeand saying our concerto, and
Oscar Van went on to do theconcerto on F on camera for
comic effect, almost in AnAmerican in Paris where all the
(24:56):
different orchestra players wereOscar and you know he's a whole
character into and of himself.
But the film created afictitious love story between a
girl named Julie Adams I thinkwas the name for Joan Leslie's
(25:18):
character and Alexis Smithplayed this sophisticated
divorcee living in Paris.
I think her name is Christine,I think Christine Stewart.
I could have the last namewrong.
But they basically createdthese love triangles as the kind
(25:42):
of the drama and the romance inthe film.
And there was a third characterthat is actually true
Gershwin's dedication to hismusic and his consistent drive
to want to bring new sounds intopopular American music was more
(26:07):
important to him than anything,including the many very
attractive and in some casesfamous women who he was dating.
He was a very popular, he was avery popular man about town in
Manhattan and he really did wantto settle down and have a
(26:30):
family someday, but certainlyright up until the time of his
death the music was moreimportant.
And so, to tell this story,christine Gilbert, that was the
character's name.
Alexis Smith.
Really, what they had to do wasfind a way to keep the songs
(26:53):
going and the musicalperformances going and still
tell a pretty easy to followscenario, if you will, and I
think they did a really good job.
But the best thing about thefilm is the way the music is
(27:14):
portrayed.
And to play Gershwin, warnerBrothers went to New York and
found Robert Alda, a stage actor, and signed him to a seven-year
contract.
They thought his youthfulcharisma would be perfect for
the character.
(27:34):
So they were taking a big riskby not having a big star play
George Gershwin.
But altogether the film wasfinancially successful.
It was very expensive but itwas financially successful.
And nobody talked about thefact that the Porgy and Bess
(27:56):
sequence was cut short and therewas footage seen by the
soldiers.
I mean, that was not.
It's not written about verymuch anywhere.
That's why I had to go down tothe files to make sure that it
really did exist and findingthat footage.
It's a very long movie,especially having the 10-minute
(28:20):
overture, but it breezes by sowell because it is very well
constructed and with thesecomposer biographies it's kind
of.
And then I wrote and then Iwrote.
I think they did a better jobwith that concept than certain
other biographical composermovies.
(28:43):
There was another way to handlethat idea and it was really
something that was done by 20thCentury Fox in 1938.
They made a deal with IrvingBerlin to have access to his
entire song catalog.
But Berlin did not want a filmmade about his life story.
A film made about his lifestory would have been very
(29:05):
interesting because he was sucha groundbreaking trendsetter and
his first wife died when theywere both very young and he
never thought he'd get over that.
And then he remarried and hadthree daughters.
(29:28):
His life story and his strugglewith anti-Semitism that would
have made a great story.
Maybe somebody will tell thatstory someday.
But Berlin didn't want that.
So the movie Alexander'sRagtime Band in 1938, which was
totally blessed by Berlin andhad access to all of his music
(29:52):
it was a cavalcade and itspanned 28 years of history, but
the characters didn't age,which was a very interesting
plot device.
But when this film went intoproduction, the commitment to
the Gershwin estate was toeither make a biography and
(30:13):
follow the life story or to makeit a cavalcade which would have
no connection to Gershwin'slife story and just be another
scenario built around all hissongs.
Happily, they chose to tell hislife story.
I think they did a veryeffective job and I've said this
(30:33):
a million times before, butI'll say it again now when you
take a film and you restore itand make it look phenomenal and
sound phenomenal, it makes thefilm far more tangible for
someone to reevaluate and say,hey, this is a good movie,
(30:57):
because this film has always hada little bit of a reputation of
being a good movie, but not agreat movie.
I wouldn't say that it is,cinematically, one of the great
motion pictures of our time orof the 20th century.
It's not, but it is very wellproduced and very entertaining
(31:24):
and it is a tribute.
You walk away from watching themovie having such respect for
George Gershwin and the lyricsof his brother Ira, for George
Gershwin and the lyrics of hisbrother Ira, and it's just pure
entertainment from start tofinish.
And now people can experienceit with that overture that was
(31:45):
only intended for the New Yorkand Hollywood premiere and all
the footage that the directorshot and locked in now put in
place.
So it's time for reappraisal andI hope that people will buy
this Blu-ray and they'llcertainly see the huge
improvement from the DVD wereleased in 2012, which we
(32:07):
worked really, really hard on,but we were working from a fine
grain and there was a lot ofdamage in the negative and that
wasn't able to be addressed theway we can now.
So this is really something tobe.
I'm a little enthusiastic aboutit, as you can tell, but I'm
very proud of what we as a teamhave been able to do for this
(32:29):
movie and I hope the film fansenjoy it ¶¶ ©.
Film Clip (32:55):
BF-WATCH TV 2021, that you should care for me,
(33:17):
only me.
Oh, stronger than.
Tim Millard (33:29):
And you said that this is an important film for
Warner Brothers.
Why do you say that?
George Feltenstein (33:35):
Because I think it reflects the music
department and Warner Brothers,I think, just maybe a hair under
.
I think MGM had the greatestmusic department of all the
studios, but Warner Brothers wasjust so close to almost being
(33:57):
an equal and they were on theirgame for this movie, the
responsibility of putting therhapsody in blue, which is
actually, I think, 17 minutes.
They had to make edits in thepiece and the movie basically
stops for a concert performance,and that isn't something that
(34:19):
really had been done before.
And they had amazing cameraangles.
And, of course, robert aldacouldn't play the piano, so they
used a lot of trick photographyand it reminds me a little bit
of kind of like what MTV wasdoing with music videos in the
eighties, with, you know, uh,crooked camera angles and all
(34:44):
sorts of other things.
It's visually interesting.
They found a way to bring youinto the music and keep it
cinematic.
And there are other wonderfulperformances in the movie.
I mean, I've talked about AlJolson, I've talked about Ann
Brown.
There's a gentleman who iscompletely forgotten in show
(35:06):
business history today.
Name is Tom Patricola.
He came out of retirement to dothe number Somebody Loves Me,
which he had introduced on thestage 20 years earlier, in 1923,
because the film was filmed in1943.
And he obviously was kind of aeccentric dancer, if you will,
(35:32):
and he just had a very cutelittle personality.
And he does that number withJoan Leslie.
Joan Leslie is one of the tworomantic leads in this movie and
Joan Leslie people rememberfondly for her performance as
James Cagney's George M Cohan'swife, mary, when in fact George
(35:56):
M Cohan didn't have a wife namedMary.
His first wife's name was Ethel.
And I always joke and I say youknow the song before it was
Mary.
You know we're not going tohave a song like before it was
Ethel.
You know that would not haveworked.
But Joan Leslie was a stalwarthere at the studio and did some
(36:17):
really great work and shecarries herself well in the
picture.
Alexis Smith is a knockout andso beautiful and really good.
All the performances arecompletely top rate and really
all the performances arecompletely top rate.
(36:37):
And you also have Hazel Scott,the brilliant jazz pianist and
singer.
She was not really a GershwinGershwin didn't write things for
Hazel Scott but she was veryhot at that time, hazel Scott,
but she was very hot at thattime.
And to find a woman who canplay jazz piano the way she did
(37:01):
and sing so beautifully.
They had some very nice ways ofgiving her a showcase in this
movie and the most importantingredient in this film was the
music and conveying the works ofGershwin.
Film Clip (37:19):
Fascinating rhythm.
You got me on the go.
Fascinating rhythm.
I'm all a quiver.
Fascinating rhythm.
The neighbors want to know.
Fascinating rhythm, why I'm ashiver.
Oh, how I long to be the girl Iused to be.
Fascinating rhythm, fascinatingrhythm.
(37:40):
Who did she say it was?
You mean to say you've neverheard of George Gershwin?
Why his music's all the ragejust now.
His songs, his rhapsody, what wecall the hot jazz.
George Feltenstein (37:51):
I think it also at the end of the movie
when they deal with Gershwin'sdeath.
They do.
Gershwin died, you know, 40years, 50 years, maybe even you
(38:20):
know, before I was around, but Ialways felt this sadness that
this man had died so young and Igrew to love his music as I
grew up and people are stilldiscovering his music music as I
grew up and people are stilldiscovering his music and this
film is a wonderful entree todiscovering his music, because
(38:40):
there are people out there thatneed to discover his music and
this film yeah, and I reallyenjoyed the fact that the film
starts off telling his storygrowing up in the Bronx.
Tim Millard (38:55):
To me it makes it such an American story and I
think that's said over and overagain throughout the film that
he so represented the Americanethic and found a way to take
these elements of America andput them into music and
popularize them, and that fullstory where you start with him
(39:16):
as a little boy and you get tomeet his father and mother and
Ira.
I like all of that as thebeginning of it, but then, as
you said, it's about the musicafter that.
But knowing that is sointeresting that uh, uh, that he
was just, you know, from thisfamily of very just, normal
(39:38):
people who his parents had astore and they changed
businesses frequently.
He didn't come for money any ofthat.
Uh, he didn't have the bestprivate tutors and everything
you know from the beginning.
Eventually he had some verygood piano teachers and I do, uh
, love the actor's portrayal ofthe professor there.
George Feltenstein (40:01):
Professor Frank.
There was no Professor Frank inreal life, that was a conceit
of the screenplay but it workedas a device.
Yes, Because what Gershwinwanted to do and this is made
very clear in the movie is hewanted to make an American sound
.
Yes, Because what Gershwinwanted to do and this is made
very clear in the movie is hewanted to make an American sound
.
Yes, that brought in theinfluence of jazz, Hebrew
(40:32):
melodies that would have beencommon among the Jewish people
in prayers, that he somehow wasable to use some of those
thematics musically and thethematics of jazz from New
(40:52):
Orleans and the South and soforth and so on, and create this
whole new sound.
Because the work Rhapsody inBlue, the musical work is still
astounding to me and to mesounds modern 101 years later.
(41:18):
And United Airlines has had alot of fun their, their theme
but it they did manage to find away to capture his orchestral
pieces.
There is a I don't want to saylong sequence, but there's quite
a lot of footage dedicated toAn American in Paris.
And of course, you know, eightyears later Minnelli and MGM
(41:43):
make this magnificent movie withGershwin songs all the way
through it, but with theAmerican in Paris Ballet, I mean
, you can't hear that music.
At least I can't hear thatmusic without thinking of Gene
Kelly and Leslie Caron andVincent Minnelli.
But I think they did a reallynice job and they relied on
(42:06):
stock footage of Paris, becauseParis was under Nazi occupation
when this film was made.
Because Paris was under Nazioccupation when this film was
made.
So there is this heart-tuggingaspect to it of the Paris that
was lost when the Nazis invaded.
So that's certainly a part ofthe emotional stirring.
(42:33):
But I think that all thesupporting performances are
really terrific Charles Coburnas music publishing maven.
Max Dreyfus, who was a realperson, and George White, who
produced the George Whitescandals in the early 1920s
which Gershwin scored.
He plays himself, which wascool that they were able to get
(42:55):
him to do that and the cast allthe way around.
Rosemary DeCamp as his mother.
She played mothers.
She was, I think, three or fouryears older than Robert Alda,
but she played Jimmy Cagney'smother in Yankee Dildandy.
That was the joke that RosemaryDeCamp was always cast as the
(43:16):
old mother when she was a younglady.
But Morris Karnofsky was anactor from the Yiddish theater.
He played Gershwin's father.
He's hilarious.
Tim Millard (43:26):
He had so much humor to the film with his watch
Right.
He's such a cheerleader too forhis son.
George Feltenstein (43:34):
Yeah, a fine piece, piece, 15 minutes, you
know.
But um, the other thing that'sreally, you know, very, very
emotional and moving is oscarlevant playing himself being the
wit and raconteur.
He became so famous for being,uh.
He had been in a few moviesbefore, but this movie really
(43:59):
set him, uh, into the public eyea lot more and he was a very,
uh, beloved concert pianist.
He had also written a lot ofmusic, but most of his music
never became that popular.
(44:19):
But George Gershwin was his bestfriend, and so there's a scene
in Rhapsody in Blue wherethere's two pianos next to each
other and George and Oscar areplaying together and joking
around.
That was from real life, andIra Gershwin even lent the
production some of George'spaintings just to try to
(44:43):
increase the legitimacy, theaccuracy, to add to the
environment.
I just feel that it was a laborof love.
At this studio they made a verylarge upfront investment in
getting the rights to the musicand engaging all this talent and
(45:07):
now we're able, 80 plus yearslater, to make this something
that people can have in theirhome with unprecedented quality.
It never looked or sounded thisgood when it was finished.
So you're hearing and seeingthe film better than it could
(45:29):
have been when it opened and ofcourse when it opened it was
already shorn of those extraminutes.
But we now have it, it's lockedand it's available for people
to buy and own and be veryimportant on their shelves.
Tim Millard (45:45):
Yeah, and that's what makes this release, I think
, extra special, george.
It's not just an upgrade toBlu-ray, it's not just an
upgrade to hd.
There was so much that wentinto this and it just puts kind
of the dvd in the dust and in away, in terms of if you're a fan
of this film, you're going towant to get this upgrade.
(46:06):
And if you aren't familiar withthis film, if you, when you put
it in the music, feels modernthe look of this film, there's
no way you think that it's a 80plus year old film, just because
of how great it looks and thestory is so entertaining.
And I love the fact that manyof the real people who were
(46:28):
friends of George Gershwin arein the film Just adds to it to
see them in it as a historicalpiece.
So just a terrific, terrificrelease, george.
George Feltenstein (46:43):
Well, I'm excited that people can now own
it.
Yeah, yeah, that's important.
Hello and welcome to the Expos.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me today is George
Feltenstein from the WarnerArchive.
Hi, George.
George Feltenstein (00:10):
Hi, tim, great to be with you, as always.
Tim Millard (00:13):
Well, let's start off today, George, talking about
this amazing film Rhapsody inBlue ©.
Film Clip (00:44):
BF-WATCH TV 2021.
Tim Millard (01:00):
I just thoroughly enjoyed watching this film.
The restoration is so good andthe music sounds so terrific.
I just I mean, it was just apleasure the whole 161 minutes
now that this film is thislonger version.
It was just so good.
So I think we should talk aboutthat restoration so that people
(01:22):
really understand what makesthis blu-ray so important well,
it's a combination of factors, Ithink.
George Feltenstein (01:32):
First and foremost, as you just
represented, the restorationdone by warner brothers.
Motion picture imaging isamazing and outstanding.
It is a film that was verychallenging for them to work
with because the originalnegative had all sorts of weird
(01:55):
funky damage that required extracare and scanning and in
cleanup and so forth, and wewere actually working with two
film elements.
So this was a reconstruction aswell as a restoration.
When Irving Rapper completedfilming in 1943, this film was,
(02:22):
I would say, probably about 150minutes long, maybe 151.
That was his final cut andWarner Brothers, particularly
Jack Warner, didn't want to takevery expensive films which this
was, films which this was, andput them into the theaters when
(02:49):
there was so much wartimeactivity and he felt it could do
better business if they held itback because they'd made such a
substantial investment in theproduction.
So we did not have any materialthat indicated there was a
longer version.
I had read there was.
In my research putting togethera George and Ira Gershwin in
(03:15):
Hollywood 2 CD set for our jointventure with Rhino Records
years ago, I had gotten my handson some playback discs, found
longer versions of certain songsand of course I found the
Overture disc and it was onlyrecently that I learned that the
Overture was only used in theNew York and LA premiere
(03:38):
engagements.
And we did use that overture onour DVD version.
But finding this longer versionseemed impossible.
We checked everything, or so Iwas told.
Everything was checked.
What Warner Brothers did wassomething that was done by all
(04:01):
the studios.
All the studios were so behindour fighting men and women
overseas during World War IIthat they made films available
to the armed forces long beforethey got a theatrical release to
theaters in the United Statesand elsewhere.
So the original cut of Rhapsodyin Blue was shown to the Army
(04:28):
and Army Air Corps and the Navyand so forth and so on during, I
think, late 1943 and 1944.
So there was this longerversion and I went down to USC
and went through the WarnerBrothers archive files that are
maintained at the USC Library ofCinema and Television and
(04:50):
confirmed that was the length ofRapper's Cut and also that they
had indeed sent it overseas.
And when it was time to releasethe movie and the New York and
LA premiere engagements were, Ithink, at the end of June 1945,
so just about 80 years ago tonow they had cut about 12, 13
(05:15):
minutes out of the film.
The film was mounted originallyon 18 reels and we found out
that some of the reels, and wefound out that some of the reels
of the original negative wereonly like 300 feet out of a
possible thousand.
So the reel count was the same.
(05:36):
But what we needed to do is afootage count and we brought in
the original camera negativefrom the Library of Congress,
which had.
We brought in the originalcamera negative from the Library
of Congress, which had quite abit of damage, but of course it
was the short version.
That's all anyone has seen for80 years until now.
(06:06):
We went through some prints andfine grains that were at UCLA,
which is where Warner BrothersStudio Nitrate holdings have
been cared for and on depositsince 1979.
And we did what past colleaguesdidn't do, which was to bring
in everything and measure it.
And sure enough there was abeautiful composite fine grain.
And sure enough there was abeautiful composite fine grain.
For those who don't know, afine grain is basically a print
(06:29):
made off the negative withextreme care for protection and
it used a fine grain stock hence.
(06:49):
And composite fine-grain meansthat the audio is also on that
fine-grain composite master.
So we had a source now for allthe picture that had been cut
out and all the sound.
So what we did was we scannedthe original negative, which of
course was cut.
We scanned the composite finegrain of the longer version, we
(07:10):
laid the longer version down asa bed.
Both elements were scanned at4K and we replaced 90% of what
was in the longer fine grainwith the camera negative
material and that enabled us tohave the full film, as the
director intended.
(07:31):
And most of the added footageis somewhat inconsequential, but
making up for that is somethingof enormous importance and
meaning, and that is that in thereleased version of the film,
(07:55):
gershwin's Porgy and Bess wasgiven, I think, a minute and 45
seconds in a very brief halfchorus of summertime sung by the
original actress who playedBess in Porgy and Bess, anne
Brown.
But in the original longerversion it was a five minute
sequence on Porgy and Bess andAnne Brown did a full rendition
(08:22):
of the song.
Two choruses.
Good evening all Hi hi.
Film Clip (08:29):
Has one of you seen Joe, my Joe, for I have a date
with him here.
It couldn't be that I havemissed him.
I am a little early for him.
Maybe has one of you seen Joe,my love and my, my Joe, my show.
George Feltenstein (09:09):
Now the character of Bess in Porgy and
Bess is not the main vocalistfor Summertime, but the
character of Bess does do areprise later on in the opera.
But this was truly a find andthe whole Porgy and Bess
(09:30):
sequence there's even a buttonon it because Ruben Mamoulian,
who had directed the stageproduction, directed the stage
productions of Oklahoma so manyother important things as well
as Ruben Mamoulian did somereally amazing films and he
plays himself and we didn't knowthat because nobody could see
(09:51):
this version until now.
So putting everything backtogether as a reconstruction was
an enormous effort.
There were damaged areas in thecamera negative that needed a
special amount of attention andso the picture went through
(10:12):
basically a manualframe-by-frame restoration and
the audio was not just achallenge for our archival audio
team but it was also veryrewarding because they told me
(10:33):
that there was more frequencyresponse in that optical audio
track than they usually see froma film that was shot in 1943.
From a film that was shot in1943.
So with the picture restoredand reconstructed and with the
audio restored, this newpresentation is, I think, a
(11:00):
magnificent representation of avery important film in the
history of Warner Brothers.
Tim Millard (11:03):
That's an amazing story, george.
I've heard you talk a littlebit about it, but the way you
laid it out, of how you actuallyuse both versions of the film
the fine grain and the originalreally helped me picture how
that restoration worked and itmakes so much sense now, having
(11:23):
seen it, why it looks so good.
And then this story about theadditional footage in Porgy and
Bess.
That's a great scene.
I'm so glad that that's inthere, and for anybody who had
the DVD or saw the previousversion of the movie, it's
definitely worth getting thisone for all of the reasons you
(11:43):
just laid out and the greataudio as well © BF-WATCH TV 2021
(12:35):
, so so.
(13:04):
I'm just thinking back to thatperformance of Rhapsody in Blue.
The song that is crisp.
I mean the audio is amazing andthe visuals are so terrific.
It really, really pulls you inin that scene.
But I mean the whole movie isfantastic, but that one is just
(13:26):
encapsulates how great thisrelease is.
I think that song.
George Feltenstein (13:32):
George Gershwin passed away from a
brain tumor in 1937.
He was 38 years old and, if youthink of the body of his work
from his very limited lifetime,gershwin's standards are still
being performed today.
Poirier and Bess is performedin opera houses all over the
(13:58):
world and it gets the respectthat it didn't get when it
opened on Broadway in 1935.
Warner Brothers really wantedto pursue Gershwin's life story
and the genesis of the projectbegan as early as 1941.
(14:20):
Some people have assumed thatWarner Brothers made Rhapsody in
Blue as a follow-up to the bigsuccess of Yankee Doodle Dandy
because that was the story ofsongwriter and performer George
M Cohan.
That's not true.
They started working on thisbefore a single frame of footage
(14:46):
was shot for Yankee DoodleDandy.
What needed to be done to getthis into play was, first and
foremost, the approval of theGershwin family.
George's brother, ira, who isportrayed in the movie, was
integral in that GeorgeGershwin's estate belonged to
(15:11):
his mother because GeorgeGershwin died without a will.
So George Gershwin's mother hadto approve the deal as well and
the Gershwins were veryhandsomely compensated for the
use of their music.
But it was also incumbent onthe Warner Brothers legal
(15:31):
department to clear the use ofcompositions that were written
for Broadway shows that becamemovies made by other studios.
So they had to go and getpermission to use I Got Rhythm,
I believe, or Embraceable you.
(15:55):
They were written for GirlCrazy and I believe MGM had
bought the rights to Girl Crazyfrom RKO by that time, and so
all the studios were really coolwith each other when these
kinds of things came up andnobody was being hard-ass and
saying no, we're not going tolet you have that.
(16:15):
The studios all cooperated witheach other when these kinds of
projects came up.
So you had to get clearancesfrom the producers of the
Broadway shows that the songswere written for, and it was an
enormous task and I've gonethrough all that paperwork to
understand it.
Uh.
(16:36):
So also telling GeorgeGershwin's life story, uh,
required really good writing,and initially playwright
Clifford Odets was signed towrite a first treatment on the
(16:59):
screenplay, and I've heard thatOdets' first treatment was like
900 pages.
That may be apocryphal, I don'tknow, but Ira Gershwin was a
consultant on the project at thevery beginning, but it was
actually too painful for him tocontinue on in that role because
(17:22):
he, along with the rest of theworld, was mourning his brother.
George Gershwin had only beendead for four years when this
movie went into production.
So you know, it's an achingwound for any lover of the great
American songbook that GeorgeGershwin's life was curtailed by
(17:45):
a brain tumor.
But the work that he left behindwas so substantial that it
could carry the film andcomposer biopics, as we call
them.
They were made by WarnerBrothers, they were made by
Warner Brothers, they were madeby 20th Century Fox, they were
made by MGM, and usually thelife story of a particular
(18:12):
songwriter is not going to beparticularly interesting, and
and so Clifford Odette'streatment wasn't quite what
Warner Brothers had in mind.
So they brought in new writers,parts of the 1946 film
(18:42):
Humoresque, which is about ayoung violinist growing up on
the Lower East Side, played byJohn Garfield, and his friend is
Oscar Levant.
Well, oscar Levant was GeorgeGershwin's best friend and it's
the George Gershwin-Oscar Levantbanter in Rhapsody in Blue and
(19:08):
it's the George Gershwin OscarLevant banter in Rhapsody in
Blue that is often the highlightof the comedy in the film.
So a lot of that, a lot of theplot devices that Odette's had
come up with, were used later inHumoresque.
But they came up with like afinal list of songs final list
of songs.
And when I had the good fortuneof introducing this new
(19:30):
reconstruction and restorationat the TCM Film Festival, I did
say to the audience there is amember of the cast, so to speak,
here that's not on camera, thatdeserves your attention and
applause and that is the WarnerBrothers Studio Orchestra.
(19:50):
What the Warner Brothers MusicDepartment achieved here,
particularly under the directionof Ray Hindorff, who is the
musical, he did all thearrangements, he put together
that incredible overture.
He had won two Oscars duringhis tenure here, was nominated
(20:13):
for a lot more.
He won Oscars for Yankee DoodleDandy in 1942 and the Music man
in 1962.
He's a brilliantly giftedindividual and, combined with
the instrumentation that he didon the orchestrations, as well
(20:35):
as the underscore of the movie,which was written by Max Steiner
, who used his talents to weaveGershwin melodies in between his
original themes this issomething that wasn't new to Max
Steiner, because he did thesame thing on Casablanca with as
(20:57):
Time Goes by, which he did notwrite, but he wrote his own
music and interwove as time goesby in the themes.
Same thing happened on to adifferent degree Gone with the
Wind, max Steiner wrote hours oforiginal music but used Civil
(21:17):
War songs, for lack of a betterword in the score, and wove them
together.
So you had the Warner BrothersMusic Department on just full
kilter here.
And that's an amazingcontribution to why the film is
(21:40):
so important, because it doeswrite by Gershwin's music.
In terms of the sound and interms of the storytelling,
george Gershwin was successful.
I think he was 20 years oldwhen he had his first hit song,
swanee, with lyrics by IrvingCaesar, and that was introduced
(22:02):
by Al Jolson, and they got AlJolson to reprise his
performance in this movie, whichis really important, and at
that moment in time Al Jolsonhad yet to have his life turned
into a hit movie.
To a hit movie.
(22:27):
1946, the Jolson story was madeat Columbia Pictures and Jolson
, much to his unhappiness, wastoo old to play himself in the
movie.
But he pre-recorded all thesongs and actor Larry Parks
mouthed them.
It was one of the mostsuccessful films of the 1940s
and begat a sequel and also madeJolson popular again to new
audiences.
But when Rhapsody in Blue wasfilmed he was doing radio but he
(22:49):
wasn't the superstar that hehad once been.
Film Clip (22:53):
I've been away from you a long time.
I never thought I'd miss you,so Somehow I feel your love is
real.
Near you I want to be.
The birds are singing, it issong time.
The banjo's strumming soft andlow.
(23:14):
I know that you yearn for me too, swanee.
How I love you, how I love you.
My dear old Swanee, I'd givethe world to be Among the folks
in D-I-X.
I even know my mammy's Waitingfor me, praying for me down by
(23:40):
the Swanee.
The folks up north won't see meno more when I get to that
Swanee show.
George Feltenstein (23:49):
But having people who were associated with
Gershwin performances originallyis one of the real precious
gems of this movie.
And specifically you have PaulWhiteman and his orchestra who
(24:09):
performed the original Rhapsodyin Blue at Aeolian Hall in New
York City in 1924.
Paul Whiteman is in the movieplaying himself.
There are some of his originalband members in the onscreen
orchestra recreating what theyplayed when the work was first
(24:34):
performed.
There's the concerto in F andOscar Levant referred to it in
real life, you know, to Georgeand saying our concerto, and
Oscar Van went on to do theconcerto on F on camera for
comic effect, almost in AnAmerican in Paris where all the
(24:56):
different orchestra players wereOscar and you know he's a whole
character into and of himself.
But the film created afictitious love story between a
girl named Julie Adams I thinkwas the name for Joan Leslie's
(25:18):
character and Alexis Smithplayed this sophisticated
divorcee living in Paris.
I think her name is Christine,I think Christine Stewart.
I could have the last namewrong.
But they basically createdthese love triangles as the kind
(25:42):
of the drama and the romance inthe film.
And there was a third characterthat is actually true
Gershwin's dedication to hismusic and his consistent drive
to want to bring new sounds intopopular American music was more
(26:07):
important to him than anything,including the many very
attractive and in some casesfamous women who he was dating.
He was a very popular, he was avery popular man about town in
Manhattan and he really did wantto settle down and have a
(26:30):
family someday, but certainlyright up until the time of his
death the music was moreimportant.
And so, to tell this story,christine Gilbert, that was the
character's name.
Alexis Smith.
Really, what they had to do wasfind a way to keep the songs
(26:53):
going and the musicalperformances going and still
tell a pretty easy to followscenario, if you will, and I
think they did a really good job.
But the best thing about thefilm is the way the music is
(27:14):
portrayed.
And to play Gershwin, warnerBrothers went to New York and
found Robert Alda, a stage actor, and signed him to a seven-year
contract.
They thought his youthfulcharisma would be perfect for
the character.
(27:34):
So they were taking a big riskby not having a big star play
George Gershwin.
But altogether the film wasfinancially successful.
It was very expensive but itwas financially successful.
And nobody talked about thefact that the Porgy and Bess
(27:56):
sequence was cut short and therewas footage seen by the
soldiers.
I mean, that was not.
It's not written about verymuch anywhere.
That's why I had to go down tothe files to make sure that it
really did exist and findingthat footage.
It's a very long movie,especially having the 10-minute
(28:20):
overture, but it breezes by sowell because it is very well
constructed and with thesecomposer biographies it's kind
of.
And then I wrote and then Iwrote.
I think they did a better jobwith that concept than certain
other biographical composermovies.
(28:43):
There was another way to handlethat idea and it was really
something that was done by 20thCentury Fox in 1938.
They made a deal with IrvingBerlin to have access to his
entire song catalog.
But Berlin did not want a filmmade about his life story.
A film made about his lifestory would have been very
(29:05):
interesting because he was sucha groundbreaking trendsetter and
his first wife died when theywere both very young and he
never thought he'd get over that.
And then he remarried and hadthree daughters.
(29:28):
His life story and his strugglewith anti-Semitism that would
have made a great story.
Maybe somebody will tell thatstory someday.
But Berlin didn't want that.
So the movie Alexander'sRagtime Band in 1938, which was
totally blessed by Berlin andhad access to all of his music
(29:52):
it was a cavalcade and itspanned 28 years of history, but
the characters didn't age,which was a very interesting
plot device.
But when this film went intoproduction, the commitment to
the Gershwin estate was toeither make a biography and
(30:13):
follow the life story or to makeit a cavalcade which would have
no connection to Gershwin'slife story and just be another
scenario built around all hissongs.
Happily, they chose to tell hislife story.
I think they did a veryeffective job and I've said this
(30:33):
a million times before, butI'll say it again now when you
take a film and you restore itand make it look phenomenal and
sound phenomenal, it makes thefilm far more tangible for
someone to reevaluate and say,hey, this is a good movie,
(30:57):
because this film has always hada little bit of a reputation of
being a good movie, but not agreat movie.
I wouldn't say that it is,cinematically, one of the great
motion pictures of our time orof the 20th century.
It's not, but it is very wellproduced and very entertaining
(31:24):
and it is a tribute.
You walk away from watching themovie having such respect for
George Gershwin and the lyricsof his brother Ira, for George
Gershwin and the lyrics of hisbrother Ira, and it's just pure
entertainment from start tofinish.
And now people can experienceit with that overture that was
(31:45):
only intended for the New Yorkand Hollywood premiere and all
the footage that the directorshot and locked in now put in
place.
So it's time for reappraisal andI hope that people will buy
this Blu-ray and they'llcertainly see the huge
improvement from the DVD wereleased in 2012, which we
(32:07):
worked really, really hard on,but we were working from a fine
grain and there was a lot ofdamage in the negative and that
wasn't able to be addressed theway we can now.
So this is really something tobe.
I'm a little enthusiastic aboutit, as you can tell, but I'm
very proud of what we as a teamhave been able to do for this
(32:29):
movie and I hope the film fansenjoy it ¶¶ ©.
Film Clip (32:55):
BF-WATCH TV 2021, that you should care for me,
(33:17):
only me.
Oh, stronger than.
Tim Millard (33:29):
And you said that this is an important film for
Warner Brothers.
Why do you say that?
George Feltenstein (33:35):
Because I think it reflects the music
department and Warner Brothers,I think, just maybe a hair under
.
I think MGM had the greatestmusic department of all the
studios, but Warner Brothers wasjust so close to almost being
(33:57):
an equal and they were on theirgame for this movie, the
responsibility of putting therhapsody in blue, which is
actually, I think, 17 minutes.
They had to make edits in thepiece and the movie basically
stops for a concert performance,and that isn't something that
(34:19):
really had been done before.
And they had amazing cameraangles.
And, of course, robert aldacouldn't play the piano, so they
used a lot of trick photographyand it reminds me a little bit
of kind of like what MTV wasdoing with music videos in the
eighties, with, you know, uh,crooked camera angles and all
(34:44):
sorts of other things.
It's visually interesting.
They found a way to bring youinto the music and keep it
cinematic.
And there are other wonderfulperformances in the movie.
I mean, I've talked about AlJolson, I've talked about Ann
Brown.
There's a gentleman who iscompletely forgotten in show
(35:06):
business history today.
Name is Tom Patricola.
He came out of retirement to dothe number Somebody Loves Me,
which he had introduced on thestage 20 years earlier, in 1923,
because the film was filmed in1943.
And he obviously was kind of aeccentric dancer, if you will,
(35:32):
and he just had a very cutelittle personality.
And he does that number withJoan Leslie.
Joan Leslie is one of the tworomantic leads in this movie and
Joan Leslie people rememberfondly for her performance as
James Cagney's George M Cohan'swife, mary, when in fact George
(35:56):
M Cohan didn't have a wife namedMary.
His first wife's name was Ethel.
And I always joke and I say youknow the song before it was
Mary.
You know we're not going tohave a song like before it was
Ethel.
You know that would not haveworked.
But Joan Leslie was a stalwarthere at the studio and did some
(36:17):
really great work and shecarries herself well in the
picture.
Alexis Smith is a knockout andso beautiful and really good.
All the performances arecompletely top rate and really
all the performances arecompletely top rate.
(36:37):
And you also have Hazel Scott,the brilliant jazz pianist and
singer.
She was not really a GershwinGershwin didn't write things for
Hazel Scott but she was veryhot at that time, hazel Scott,
but she was very hot at thattime.
And to find a woman who canplay jazz piano the way she did
(37:01):
and sing so beautifully.
They had some very nice ways ofgiving her a showcase in this
movie and the most importantingredient in this film was the
music and conveying the works ofGershwin.
Film Clip (37:19):
Fascinating rhythm.
You got me on the go.
Fascinating rhythm.
I'm all a quiver.
Fascinating rhythm.
The neighbors want to know.
Fascinating rhythm, why I'm ashiver.
Oh, how I long to be the girl Iused to be.
Fascinating rhythm, fascinatingrhythm.
(37:40):
Who did she say it was?
You mean to say you've neverheard of George Gershwin?
Why his music's all the ragejust now.
His songs, his rhapsody, what wecall the hot jazz.
George Feltenstein (37:51):
I think it also at the end of the movie
when they deal with Gershwin'sdeath.
They do.
Gershwin died, you know, 40years, 50 years, maybe even you
(38:20):
know, before I was around, but Ialways felt this sadness that
this man had died so young and Igrew to love his music as I
grew up and people are stilldiscovering his music music as I
grew up and people are stilldiscovering his music and this
film is a wonderful entree todiscovering his music, because
(38:40):
there are people out there thatneed to discover his music and
this film yeah, and I reallyenjoyed the fact that the film
starts off telling his storygrowing up in the Bronx.
Tim Millard (38:55):
To me it makes it such an American story and I
think that's said over and overagain throughout the film that
he so represented the Americanethic and found a way to take
these elements of America andput them into music and
popularize them, and that fullstory where you start with him
(39:16):
as a little boy and you get tomeet his father and mother and
Ira.
I like all of that as thebeginning of it, but then, as
you said, it's about the musicafter that.
But knowing that is sointeresting that uh, uh, that he
was just, you know, from thisfamily of very just, normal
(39:38):
people who his parents had astore and they changed
businesses frequently.
He didn't come for money any ofthat.
Uh, he didn't have the bestprivate tutors and everything
you know from the beginning.
Eventually he had some verygood piano teachers and I do, uh
, love the actor's portrayal ofthe professor there.
George Feltenstein (40:01):
Professor Frank.
There was no Professor Frank inreal life, that was a conceit
of the screenplay but it workedas a device.
Yes, Because what Gershwinwanted to do and this is made
very clear in the movie is hewanted to make an American sound
.
Yes, Because what Gershwinwanted to do and this is made
very clear in the movie is hewanted to make an American sound
.
Yes, that brought in theinfluence of jazz, Hebrew
(40:32):
melodies that would have beencommon among the Jewish people
in prayers, that he somehow wasable to use some of those
thematics musically and thethematics of jazz from New
(40:52):
Orleans and the South and soforth and so on, and create this
whole new sound.
Because the work Rhapsody inBlue, the musical work is still
astounding to me and to mesounds modern 101 years later.
(41:18):
And United Airlines has had alot of fun their, their theme
but it they did manage to find away to capture his orchestral
pieces.
There is a I don't want to saylong sequence, but there's quite
a lot of footage dedicated toAn American in Paris.
And of course, you know, eightyears later Minnelli and MGM
(41:43):
make this magnificent movie withGershwin songs all the way
through it, but with theAmerican in Paris Ballet, I mean
, you can't hear that music.
At least I can't hear thatmusic without thinking of Gene
Kelly and Leslie Caron andVincent Minnelli.
But I think they did a reallynice job and they relied on
(42:06):
stock footage of Paris, becauseParis was under Nazi occupation
when this film was made.
Because Paris was under Nazioccupation when this film was
made.
So there is this heart-tuggingaspect to it of the Paris that
was lost when the Nazis invaded.
So that's certainly a part ofthe emotional stirring.
(42:33):
But I think that all thesupporting performances are
really terrific Charles Coburnas music publishing maven.
Max Dreyfus, who was a realperson, and George White, who
produced the George Whitescandals in the early 1920s
which Gershwin scored.
He plays himself, which wascool that they were able to get
(42:55):
him to do that and the cast allthe way around.
Rosemary DeCamp as his mother.
She played mothers.
She was, I think, three or fouryears older than Robert Alda,
but she played Jimmy Cagney'smother in Yankee Dildandy.
That was the joke that RosemaryDeCamp was always cast as the
(43:16):
old mother when she was a younglady.
But Morris Karnofsky was anactor from the Yiddish theater.
He played Gershwin's father.
He's hilarious.
Tim Millard (43:26):
He had so much humor to the film with his watch
Right.
He's such a cheerleader too forhis son.
George Feltenstein (43:34):
Yeah, a fine piece, piece, 15 minutes, you
know.
But um, the other thing that'sreally, you know, very, very
emotional and moving is oscarlevant playing himself being the
wit and raconteur.
He became so famous for being,uh.
He had been in a few moviesbefore, but this movie really
(43:59):
set him, uh, into the public eyea lot more and he was a very,
uh, beloved concert pianist.
He had also written a lot ofmusic, but most of his music
never became that popular.
(44:19):
But George Gershwin was his bestfriend, and so there's a scene
in Rhapsody in Blue wherethere's two pianos next to each
other and George and Oscar areplaying together and joking
around.
That was from real life, andIra Gershwin even lent the
production some of George'spaintings just to try to
(44:43):
increase the legitimacy, theaccuracy, to add to the
environment.
I just feel that it was a laborof love.
At this studio they made a verylarge upfront investment in
getting the rights to the musicand engaging all this talent and
(45:07):
now we're able, 80 plus yearslater, to make this something
that people can have in theirhome with unprecedented quality.
It never looked or sounded thisgood when it was finished.
So you're hearing and seeingthe film better than it could
(45:29):
have been when it opened and ofcourse when it opened it was
already shorn of those extraminutes.
But we now have it, it's lockedand it's available for people
to buy and own and be veryimportant on their shelves.
Tim Millard (45:45):
Yeah, and that's what makes this release, I think
, extra special, george.
It's not just an upgrade toBlu-ray, it's not just an
upgrade to hd.
There was so much that wentinto this and it just puts kind
of the dvd in the dust and in away, in terms of if you're a fan
of this film, you're going towant to get this upgrade.
(46:06):
And if you aren't familiar withthis film, if you, when you put
it in the music, feels modernthe look of this film, there's
no way you think that it's a 80plus year old film, just because
of how great it looks and thestory is so entertaining.
And I love the fact that manyof the real people who were
(46:28):
friends of George Gershwin arein the film Just adds to it to
see them in it as a historicalpiece.
So just a terrific, terrificrelease, george.
George Feltenstein (46:43):
Well, I'm excited that people can now own
it.
Yeah, yeah, that's important.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.