Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

gkeith_1 Spoilers. Observations. Opinions.Great. I rate it high. I love song and dance musical films. You know that, from reading many of my other reviews. I give this film a ten, because it was truly enlightening and entertaining. Hardly any bio pictures are true to real life, but they must get tweaked in order to sell tickets to the audience.This was 1948. Rooney had been in WW Two in the military, and he later said that when he came back his career almost non-existed. He was older, more jaded, had weight gain, was over the hill, etc., etc., etc. It was difficult to get cast in pictures. Happy-go-lucky Andy Hardy had become an adult.A few years ago, I wrote and presented a research paper to a military group. I spoke to veterans about movie stars who participated in WW Two. Many stars came home to a changed Hollywood, a changed audience and lessened careers. They were older, and had seen the horrors of war. Times had changed, and many actors were less bankable. The musical film genre had seen its heyday.Rooney got this manic, out-of-control spinning-top lead part, of portraying the famous Lorenz Hart. Rooney needed the cash, obviously. Rooney, he of the many wives and romantic lovey-dovey relationships, portrayed a homosexual man who was closeted in real life plus in this film. Did Garrett dump him (Hart) because he just couldn't make it in the bedroom? That would be offscreen, of course. Someone wrote that Garrett's character stood in place of a man, in Hart's real life. In this film, did Hart's enormous cigars stand for his yearning to explain away his impotence? Did the mile-high shoes do anything for his inferiority complex of being a short shrimp? Truly, his high-waters pants were the laughingstock of the whole movie.Many stars in the heavens. This was the subject of an MGM short film extolling its virtues, and bragging about all of its star actors. Words and Music looks like one of the films I heard about that employed a ton of actors whose careers were sliding post-WW Two. There were more tons of them in this film than I could have imagined, not to mention lead actors and slews of crowd scene dancers. Crowd scenes cost way too much money. Big stars were getting to be a dime a dozen.Musical films were on the way out, down the slope. LB Mayer was being blamed for more and more of these money-losers, and his own star was fading fast. Do we read that many of these quite young stars "retired" by the early 1950s, to get married and raise their children? Perhaps, because their careers were finished or about to be so. Mayer was gone, replaced by someone else. Papa's favorite children had to move on. Maybe some of them became special guest stars on 1950s TV variety shows. Garland had her own TV show for awhile. Garrett was on some TV shows.Yes, Como went on to host a many-years successful TV show that had his own name. Later in life, Rooney played a janitor (?) in a Night at the Museum film. Garland's life ended quite early, after a spectacular and relatively short career in films; later, she was said to be constantly in poverty. The Boy Next Door never was a major star. Kelly went on to make some big movies. I like seeing the ballet and tap dancing in this film.I didn't notice women's clothes in this film looking too much like 1920s and 1930s, but early cars looked authentic of the time period. I saw late 1940s automobiles that looked way past the time period of Hart's life, since the real Hart passed away in 1943.Note that stars of this film were born around and after World War One. (For example, Rooney 1920, Garland 1922). I call them postwar baby boomers of that generation. It's odd to think that the next big war helped kill their careers.Rodgers' and Hart's careers also blossomed between those two wars. Go figure. Rodgers went on to team up with Mr. Hammerstein.I am a degreed historian, studies including military history coursework. I am also an actress, film critic and movie reviewer. Additionally, I study the lives of theatrical and cinematic actors and actresses.

tavm After first watching this 20 years ago, I saw this again on DVD twice-once as it was and then again with commentary by John Barrios. He points out many of the inaccuracies depicted in the life of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, particularly the latter, on film. But as long as the musical performances permeate during most of it, I don't think that should be too distracting while watching it. And what great performances they are-June Allyson doing "Thou Swell", Lena Horne singing "Where or When" and "The Lady is a Tramp", Judy Garland reuniting with Mickey Rooney with "I Wish I Were in Love Again" before soloing on "Johnny One-Note", and the sensually beautiful dance number "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" with Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen. That last number got me welling up in tears both times I just watched it! After that sequence, however, it gets a bit ridiculous as Rooney, playing Hart, suddenly collapses on the floor before being taken to a hospital and then doing it again, for good, in a later rainy scene-no matter how true to life that last one was. I also thought it was a bit silly for Perry Como to be playing someone fictional and then being introed as himself at the very end! Still, because of all those musical numbers of which Cyd Charisse also did some good turns, Words and Music was pretty entertaining most of the time.

TheLittleSongbird Words and Music is one of those films that is heavily flawed but is still a pleasure to watch. The failures are mainly to do with the biographical parts, with anachronistic and rather stilted dialogue, an underwritten and stodgily paced story that takes truth liberties to the extent that Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart just don't seem very interesting and the heavier dramatic elements seemed on the ham-fisted side. Unfortunately there are also casting issues too. Tom Drake is so restrained as Rodgers that he comes across as colourless, especially when compared to Mickey Rooney who chews the scenery to pieces with the subtlety of a sledgehammer that seems at odds with the rest of the film. Janet Leigh also has very little to do and her performance doesn't register as a result. The film has lovely sets and costumes though and the cinematography is very nicely done. The music is top drawer with witty lyrics and melodies that are both beautiful and catchy. The choreography brims with sharpness and nostalgia too, and several of the performers are great. Of the musical numbers, my personal highlight was Slaughter on 10th Avenue, utter class of the highest order and danced to perfection by Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen. Very close is Thou Swell, June Allyson performs it with such lively energy, and you have to love the Blackburn Twins' coyness. Blue Room benefits from Perry Como's sensitive singing and Cyd Charise is able to show her elegant dancing and long legs just as beautifully. Mel Torme's rendition of Blue Moon is incredibly touching, as is Judy Garland and Rooney's(his best moment in the film easily) reunion rendition of I Wish I Were in Love Again. Garland's Johnny One-Note charms too and Lena Horne's The Lady is a Tramp is a winner. All in all, the biographical elements don't really work but the musical numbers do and the best ones(Slaughter on 10th Avenue and Thou Swell) are outstanding. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

Forn55 Oh, dear, dear, dear. What can one say about "Words and Music?" That it contains some boffo musical numbers? Sure. That it has cameo appearances by a whole galaxy of Hollywood musical stars? Check. That it keeps on going with a "and then this and this and this happened" rhythm that would make even the shaggiest of shaggy dog storytellers blush? Yup. Alas. This big, white-washed, no-expenses-spared movie musical has about as much to do with lyricist Hart's real life story as "Night and Day" had to do with that of Cole Porter. Rooney was (presumably) cast by the studio since he could sing and was a big box-office draw, but here he seems to be channelling the spirit of a chipmunk with Broadway aspirations; anyone seeing this movie would come away with the impression that Hart's fundamental problem was that he was short. Hart's alcoholism is (tastefully) glossed over; his homosexuality is never even mentioned.However... every time the viewer is fed up with the bland dialogue, or the inability of the studio to decide just what era to set the film in, along comes one of those boffo musical numbers to lull (or club) you into dewy-eyed attentiveness. My advice is to rent this movie and fast-forward through all the "drama", pausing only to enjoy the musical numbers. You'll have a good time and it'll cut the film's running time down to a sparkling hour plus change