Strong and Moving!

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Life in the Bayou for fisherman Mario Lanza comes to an end when an opera star and her agent (Kathryn Grayson and David Niven) visit for the annual blessing of the fishing boats and discover his untrained but classical singing voice. He's unaccustomed to life among polite society so he's a bit crude when introduced. Fame is only a song away with a few bumps along the way. This is basically a re-tread of "That Midnight Kiss" with Lanza in a fishing boat instead of a truck and in period costumes instead of modern dress. Ms. Grayson gives an extremely funny performance, her eyes indicating hysterical disgust as he "intrudes" on her singing of "Be My Love" and later swings her around in a fiery dance. Niven's subtle performance suggests his character is totally amused by Lanza's lack of sophistication and how it puts the woman he loves in some precarious predicaments.This film is highlighted by the "Tina Lina", a production number sung by Lanza and danced by the people of the Bayou, lead by Broadway dancer James Mitchell (later "All My Children's" Palmer Cortlandt) and future Oscar Winner Rita Moreno. She is a soft and lovely character, not the spitfire usually associated with her, although she brought a lot of femininity to "West Side Story's" Anita who was really only a spitfire when she danced. Pedro Armandariz as Lanza's father makes his stereotypical character a bit more likable by giving him a rough around the edge persona that is actually charming once you get used to him.There's also a very funny "curtain call" at the end where Grayson and Lanza engage in a chase around the stage (front and back) which seems a pre-cursor to Grayson's later diva in "Kiss Me Kate". My only issue with the film was its repeat of basically the same story as their previous one together and the quick ending that seemed to wrap up the story too abruptly and unbelievably.

It seems fairly obvious that at MGM they were staunch believers in the saying if it ain't broke don't fix it. In 1949 they launched their new signing Mario Lanza in That Midnight Kiss; he played a truck driver who both liked to and could sing as the insipid Kathryn Grayson discovered when he delivered a piano to her home. By chance Grayson was a fledgling opera singer and gave Lanza a send-in with Jose Iturbi. In passing Grayson fell for Lanza but he had an 'understanding' with Marjorie Reynolds. So much for plot. The film made big bucks so they remade it the next year. This time Lanza is a shrimp fisherman who likes to and can sing, Grayson is now a full-fledged opera diva who discovers him by chance and this time around, just so we can't say 'not again', it's Lanza who falls for her and her that has an 'understanding' with David Niven as the impresario who gives Lanza a crack at Madame Butterly. In the previous film J.Carroll Naish scored as Lanza's father so, for extra insurance, he's here again but this time as Lanza's uncle. Subtle, right. There was only one 'new' song in That Midnight Kiss so MGM put Sammy Cahn and Nicholas Brodzsy to work and they came up with Lanza's first million seller Be My Love albeit Grayson sings it first and then they duet. By 1950 there was probably just enough post-war hysteria sill hanging around to make this palatable.

More wide-eyed, hysterical 50s hyper-cheerfulness that gives new meaning to anti-social, pathological behaviour. Danza and Grayson will leave you begging for mercy.It's a shame that all the people involved in the making of this movie are now dead (or in nursing homes). I kinda thought about suing them for torture. As this movie started unleashing its shamelessly aggressive operatic assault onto my poor, defenseless ear-drums, I felt instant, strong pain envelop my entire being. That damn muscular vibrato can shatter Soviet tanks into tiny bits, nevermind glass."Why didn't you switch the channel if you didn't like it?", you might ask angrily. Fair point, fair point... The answer is that I wanted to, but the pain was so sudden and excruciating that I fell to the floor, writhing in agony. With my last ounces of energy, I tried to reach the remote but couldn't.A silly little fisherman with the questionable talent of singing with an annoying opera voice is discovered by Niven, who then proceeds to "pigmalionize" him. Lanza is in love with asymmetrical Grayson, but she predictably treats him with contempt until they finally hook up. This may seem like a rather thin plot, but this noisy movie is so chock-full of singing and music that there is barely any dialogue at all. This movie is RELENTLESS. Forget about torturing hippies and war prisoners with Slayer's "Reign In Blood" (as in a South Park episode). Whatever little conversation there is amongst the silly adults that infest this strange 50s musical world, it's all infantile - as if they were all 6 year-olds impersonating grown-ups. I can only envy people who find movies like this funny. It must be great being easy-to-please: what a world of wonder would open up to me if only I could enjoy any silly old gag as hilarious, gut-busting comedy. But let's examine this phenomenon, the 50s musical. My best guess is that 50s musicals offered the more day-dreaming idealists among us a glimpse into Utopia or Heaven (depending on whether you're church-going or Lenin's-tomb-going), or at least very cheesy version of these fantasy-inspired places. TTONO is more akin to a representation of Hell, but that's just me. I don't seem to "get" musicals. People talk, there is a story - but then all-of-a-sudden everyone starts singing for about 4 minutes after which they abruptly calm down and then pretend as if nothing unusual happened! When you think about it, musicals are stranger than any science-fiction film.Worse yet, TTONO (my favourite type of pizza, btw) is not just a 50s musical, but one with opera squealing. Opera is proof that there is such a thing as over-training a voice - to the point where it becomes an ear-piercing weapon rather than a means of bringing the listener pleasure. The clearest example of this travesty is when Lanza and Grayson unite their Dark Side vocal powers for a truly unbearable duet. I tried lowering the volume. I lowered it from 18 to 14. Then from 14 to 10. Then 8. I ended up lowering it to a 1, which is usually so low that it's only heard by specially-trained dogs and certain types of marsupials, and yet I STILL could hear those two braying like donkeys!Take the scene in the small boat in the river. Danza starts off with one of his deafening, brain-killing tunes, and then... nothing. No animals anywhere to be seen. Even the crocodiles, who are mostly deaf, have all but left. If you look carefully, you might even see the trees change colour, from green to yellow, in a matter of minutes. No, this was not a continuity error, it was plain old torture of the flora. And those trees were just matte paintings! Imagine how real trees would have reacted.The reason glass breaks when a high C is belched out of the overweight belly of an operatic screamer is not due to any laws of physics relating to waves and frequency, but because glass is only human - hence can take only so much pain before committing suicide through spontaneous self-explosion. I can listen to the loudest, least friendly death metal band for hours, but give me just a minute of a soprano and I get a splitting headache.

David Niven discovers Mario Lanza, a Cajun fisherman who leaves the Bayou and falls in love with opera singer, Kathryn Grayson. Lushly photographed in the usual grand MGM manner of gaudy costumes and lots of background color, the simple storyline serves as an excuse to have Lanza belt out some ringing tenor numbers and blend his voice with Grayson for some tuneful arias. Opera fans will love it--others beware!The humor gets a bit overdone with J. Carrol Naish straining for laughs and there's only a glimpse of Rita Moreno in a dance number. But brimming over with arias from "Carmen", "La Traviata" and "Martha", music lovers should have no complaints. Lanza and Grayson are both in fine voice and one would never suspect that she soon tired of his boorish antics on the set and would later refuse to co-star with him when MGM wanted her to do one more film with Lanza.