The Helen Morgan Story

Warner Bros, 1957
Starring Ann Blyth, Paul Newman, Richard Carlson, and Alan King

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Music and Lyrics by various

Helen Morgan is another jazz singer with an unfortunate history. Originally a farmer's daughter, she also overcame humble beginnings to be a major star during the 20's and 30's, lost her money due to bad choices and the Wall Street crash, was used and abused by her husbands and lovers, and died young from years of alcoholism. The movie about her life had almost as many problems. It had been announced early as 1950, but they couldn't find the right Morgan until studio head Jack L. Warner insisted on Blyth. How does she do with the tale of a woman who reaches the heights as the most famous torch singer of the Roaring 20's, only to lose it all to alcoholism? Let's start at a carnival in Chicago, where con man Larry Maddox (Newman) sells phony land in Florida and find out...

The Story: Helen Morgan (Blyth) is the only one of Maddox's hula dancers who keeps going, even when it starts raining. Morgan is determined to become a star, with or without Maddox's aid. Maddox eventually reconnects with her and convinces her to appear in the Miss Canada contest as Miss Saskatchewan. She wins, but is forced to drop her title when they find it was fixed. 

However, that does bring her into contact with lawyer Russell Wade (Carlson). After Maddox and his buddy Benny Weaver (King) bring Helen and her friends Sue (Virginia Vincent) and Dolly (Cara Williams) into the US as cover for illegal liquor, Helen breaks it off with Maddox. Despite Sue's tragic death, she does become a star in speakeasies. After she's arrested when her current place of employment is raided, she calls Wade, who gets her out. 

She becomes so popular, Maddox creates a showplace just for her, the Helen Morgan Club. He even manages to convince impresario Florenz Ziegfeld (Walter Woolf King) to hire her for his new Broadway historical epic Show Boat. Shortly after the show opens to glowing reviews, Helen learns that Wade put up the money for the Helen Morgan Club...and its raided and destroyed. Worse yet, Helen loses her money in bad investments and the Stock Market Crash. She's reduced to living as a penniless drunk in New York. Even as she bottoms out and ends up in Bellvue Hospital, Maddox hasn't forgotten her...and he's determined that she know others haven't, either.

The Song and Dance: Blyth's strong performance as Morgan and a great production bolsters this otherwise fairly routine story. Blyth doesn't look much like her, but she's a similar type, frail and aching, and she looks terrific on those pianos. This comes from the era where moviegoers were beginning to expect more from their musical biographies than a few nifty tunes and fancy numbers, and it's fairly dark for the 50's. This includes a suicide (and Helen and Dolly's realistically horrified reaction to it), Maddox being beaten to a pulp several times, and Helen trying to sing in a bar when she's hit rock-bottom and no one recognizes her. They do a great job in the first half portraying the late 20's, with fairly accurate and lavish costumes and hair for the time and terrific nightclub sets. 

Favorite Number: Our first real number is "If You Were the Only Girl In the World," which is Helen and her friends' attempt at an audition for a show. They do manage to make it into "Avalon," but Maddox knows Helen was made for better things. At Helen's first nightclub performance, we get the chorus doing an intentionally cheesy girls-and-legs routine to "The Girl Friend" before Helen comes on with the touching "The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else)." She eventually gets "Love Nest" there as well, now perched on that piano. 

We next get a montage of her at Gassher's Bar, the speakeasy that gets raided. She performs the Gershwin hit "Do, Do, Do" and "Breezin' Along with the Breeze" before she ends up in the slammer. Uptown, the real Rudy Vallee performs his hit "My Time Is Your Time," leading into Helen's "The Man I Love." Her big song at the Helen Morgan Club is the more upbeat "Sunny Side of the Street." A male vocal group gets a nice "I Want to Be Happy" at the Show Boat post opening party. We then get a medley of Helen's triumphs abroad, with "Someone to Watch Over Me" in London, "Deep Night" in Madrid, and "April In Paris" in that city. Cara Williams is briefly seen joining the chorus near the end for "Sweet Georgia Brown." Helen attempts "Somebody Loves Me" at rehearsal for her latest show, but she's so drunk, she sounds terrible. 

The movie ends with one of the songs most associated with her. She sings "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" at the big dinner finale for everyone who adores her.

Trivia: In real life, Morgan's attempt at a comeback was cut short when she died of liver disease in October 1941. 

Doris Day was initially cast as Morgan, but she thought the role a little too dark. Others considered included Susan Hayward, Jaye P. Morgan, Patti Page, Kathryn Grayson, Judy Garland, Julie London, Lizbeth Scott, Jennifer Jones, Peggy Lee, Yvonne DiCarlo, and model Nancy Berg. 

This would be Blyth's last film.

Known as Both Ends of the Candle in England, after the poem by Edna St. Millay that Helen reads near the end of the movie. 

What I Don't Like: Why did they dub Blyth? She had a gorgeous soprano that was far closer to Morgan's actual voice than Gogi Grant's belting. I have no idea why Jack L. Warner thought that was a good idea, or why he practically shoved Newman into this. Newman fought with everyone from Warner to old-school director Curtiz, and it shows in his lackluster and listless performance. Larry Maddox was fictional. Morgan actually married three times, and although her last husband was her manager, his name was Lloyd Johnston. She never bottomed out as seen in the film and continued to perform in nightclubs, radio, and onstage until her death. Though I give them kudos for going slightly more realistic, especially in the beginning, this is still ultimately the same type of melodrama that turns up in film biographies to this day. 

The Big Finale: Dark and depressing soap opera is mainly for big fans of Morgan, Blyth, or Newman. Everyone else is better off looking up the real Morgan's recordings and her performance in the 1936 Show Boat. 

Home Media: Currently available on streaming and DVD, the latter from the Warner Archives. 

DVD

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