Cinema Revisited: A Song is Born (1948)

Directed by Howard Hawks. Cast: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Hugh Herbert, Ludwig Stossell, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Steve Cochran. Released October 19, 1948. Running time 113 minutes.

When Howard Hawks agreed to remake his classic film "Ball of Fire" as a Technicolor musical starring Danny Kaye, he did it strictly for the quarter-million-dollar paycheck, which was a lot of money back then. Post-war audiences wanted colorful, happy, upbeat movies and Danny Kaye was extremely popular as a musical comedian. His fans included such heavyweights as Bob Hope and Humphrey Bogart.

With a string of successful movies since his feature film debut in 1944, Kaye was ready go into this remake, which changed the dynamic of the original from a group of professors studying slang, to studying music history. Virginia Mayo plays a gangster's moll on the run from the D.A. who hides out among the professors, and helps them better understand and appreciate swing music, which was the rage at the time the movie was made.

"A Song is Born" pales in comparison to "Ball of Fire," which is a classic screwball comedy. But it does hold up well as a true period piece due to the musical sequences featuring stars of the time that have since become legendary.

When he made "A Song is Born," Kaye had recently separated from his wife Sylvia Fine, who had written most of his material, including his musical numbers, for previous films. She wanted nothing to do with this movie, so Kaye himself performs none of the musical numbers. Furthermore, according to director Hawks, Danny was unraveling emotionally due to the split, and would stop production abruptly and completely wig-out, insisting upon an immediate session with his psychiatrist. Hawks would forever recall this experience as one of his worst in movies. Kaye and his wife reconciled, and remained together until Danny's passing nearly 40 years later. And, of course, he would go on to make more great movies, including "The Inspector General" and "The Court Jester."

"A Song is Born" has a romantic sub-plot where Danny falls for beautiful Virginia Mayo (a frequent co-star in his films during this period). But the film, overall, is fairly lackluster. It is a big lavish Technicolor production by Samuel Goldwyn, with a great director and a skilled cast. But it doesn't compare as favorably to Goldwyn's earlier productions with Kaye, such as "Wonder Man" and "The Kid from Brooklyn."

What this movie does most effectively is spotlight the swing music that had been so popular during the war years and remained so in the immediate post-war era. Musical taste was just on the verge of transitioning to Be-bop jazz, Tin Pan Alley vocalists, and, eventually, rock and roll. So, "A Song is Born" has a historical/cultural significance as being something of a culmination for the Big Band Era, with some of its top stars appearing. It is pleasantly entertaining and comes off remarkably well when one considers the conditions of filming as related by director Hawks, and the fact that he worked through the movie with a bored indifference.

"A Song is Born" was a huge hit at the box office, one of the top grossing films of the year. However, its production costs were so high, its financial success only allowed it to break even.