Fantastic!

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Because You're Mine is a little disappointing after The Great Caruso, Mario Lanza's best film and one that was even better on re-watch(even if it wasn't perfect either), but it still has many fine merits.The music and Lanza's singing are particularly good here. The operatic excerpts from Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, L'Africaine and Cavalleria Rusticana are masterpieces in themselves, and there's also a great rendition of Granada, the charming duet Because You're Mine and the welcome reappearance of Be My Love. Lanza is in sensational voice, his vocal production sounding easy and with a bright ring and he sings with sensitive phrasing and a good range of musicality, even if the emotion doesn't translate in his acting skills his singing has it aplenty. Because You're Mine looks absolutely glorious, being shot in lavish Technicolour while the sets are colourful and the costumes filled with charm. In supporting roles, a very funny and charming James Whitmore and sparkling Spring Byington stand out.Doretta Morrow, apart from singing beautifully, is a less-than-winning partner for Lanza. She looks miserable and displays no chemistry with Lanza, the two hated each other and it shows in a chemistry that is even colder than that between Lanza and Kathryn Grayson in The Toast from New Orleans. While Lanza's singing is superb, his acting is some of his stiffest and least natural-looking for any of his films, his comic timing is very flat and somewhat heavy, and when he does try to be funny it comes over as forced. To be honest, the way some of the comedy is written here doesn't help matters either; it sparkles with Whitmore and Byington but is very obvious and banal with Lanza and everybody else. The story is wafer-thin and painfully predictable, even for a film starring Lanza, lacks crispness pace-wise and also lays it rather thick with the schmaltz. And while Bobby Van's dance routine was very winningly danced and niftily choreographed, it served no point to the story and had little reason, if any at all, for being there.In summary, worth seeing for the music and Lanza, but a let-down after The Great Caruso and one of his weaker films overall. 5.5/10 Bethany Cox

***SPOILERS**** Dubbed as the voice of the 20th Century by legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini Mario Lanza doesn't let his many as well as future, as soon as they hear him, fans and admirers down. That in the movie "Bcause your Mine" Mario Lanza belting out with his great and booming tenor voice, like a .155 howitzer, song after song as the just drafted into the US Army Renaldo Rossano a man with a voice as big as well as load as all outdoors.Trying to fit in with his fellow G.I's Renaldo's fame and voice proceeds him as his company sergeant the tough as nails Sgt. Bat Batterson, James Whitmore, just goes gaga over him as soon as he inspects him in the barracks. Being an armature tenor himself Sgt. Batterson knows talent when he sees or in the case of Renaldo hears it. There's also Sgt. Batterson's kid sister Bridget, Doretta Morrow, who does TV & radio toothpaste chemicals who also falls under the charm and spell of the great Renaldo Rossano.It's later when Renaldo's singing partner the beautiful but extremely jealous, in Bridget getting close with her duet partner Renaldo Rossano, soprano Francesca Landers played Rita Corday plants false ideas into Bridget's mind in her lover Renaldo being a 1st class heel and womanizer! That leads the heart-broken Bridget to walks out on the confused and hurt, he's really in love with her, Renaldo. It's Renaldo who now feels that he's been somehow suckered punched in all this by some unknown and unseen force working behind the scenes. This soon leads to Bridget's big brother Sgt. Batterson sticking it to Renaldo by assigning him to all the dirty jobs on base like pealing potato's and taking out the garbage in order to make him pay for breaking his sister's heart. It's soon that a fistfight between the two breaks out that lands them both in the brig after Bridget tried to get her brother to kiss and make up with a stubborn as a mule Renaldo.In the end everything turns out all right for everyone involved with Renaldo who refused to sing anymore coming to the rescue in getting on stage and singing his heart out, no big deal for him, in front of the entire UN & NATO general staff and knocking em' dead in the process. Bridget who felt that Renaldo was a two bit gigolo now realizes what a wonderful and loving person he really is and the two lovebirds as the movie ends are back together singing as a duet the movie's team song "Because your mine" and bringing both the house or roof down doing it.

With Kathryn Grayson refusing to work with him again, Mario Lanza has a new leading lady in "Because You're Mine," a 1952 film which also stars Doretta Morrow, James Whitmore, Paula Corday, Jeff Donnell, and Spring Byington. Lanza is a great opera star, Renaldo Rossano, who gets drafted into the army. Fortunately for him, his commanding officer, Sgt. Batterson (Whitmore) is a fan, so Rossano has it pretty easy. Batterson is also trying to promote his sister as a singer. Renaldo falls for her. His prima donna back at the opera house (Paula Corday) will have something to say about that.Broadway star Doretta Morrow is perky, and while not as pretty as Grayson, sings beautifully. Lanza was not very nice to her - that's putting it mildly - but apparently eventually apologized. Unhappy making this film after his triumphant "The Great Caruso," Lanza gained weight throughout the film so he's trim in one scene and chunky the next. It's a shame he felt that way - the film is pleasant enough, and he sings like a dream, doing a segment from "Il Trovatore," the "Addio" from "Rigoletto," the end of "Cavalleria Rusticana," the "Our Father," the title song, "Because You're Mine," and a very impressive "Granada." Not only does he impress with his glorious high notes, he does some very lyrical and soft singing as well.James Whitmore moves into the comedy of his role easily, and Spring Byington is delightful as a general's wife who needs Renaldo to sing at a reception.Very pleasant and a must for opera and Lanza fans.

Lanza's character is inducted into the Army and undergoes basic training, during a season in which the summer uniform was prescribed. Normal summer "Class A" uniform for a private would have been a long-sleeved cotton khaki shirt with tie (tucked in between second and third buttons of shirt) and matching trousers, heavily starched (but no jacket or blouse). As an option, purchased at their own cost and only authorized for off-duty purposes, enlisted men could purchase an officer's summer Class A uniform, comprising shirt and tie in a tropical worsted material, topped with a jacket. Perhaps ten senior NCOs ever did this, of course. They and Lanza's character: the jacket hides a multitude of sins (and fat rolls), so Lanza's buck private is the best dressed enlisted man in the lower 48 during most of his military scenes. And he often looks as if he could play two NFL line positions simultaneously!