Words and Music is an Arthur Freed-produced Technicolor musical celebration of the legendary team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The film was released on Blu-ray in September by way of the Warner Archive Collection. The 121-minute film–shot in Technicolor–features a 1.37:1 aspect ratio with side mattes and a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono audio soundtrack.

There are a wealth of stars appearing in the film and taking part in beautifully staged performances. I’d expect nothing less from a film produced by Arthur Freed. As far as how much of it is actually true, that’s where the film is more of a disappointment. They fictionalize a substantial amount. Richard Rodgers (Tom Drake) and Lorenz “Larry” Hart (Mickey Rooney) wrote songs together for years until Rodgers decided to team up with Oscar Hammerstein II. The duo wrote together throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including a brief stint in Hollywood during the Depression. They would later come to regret their time in Hollywood and returned to Broadway in the mid-1930s.

Interestingly, I watched Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy the other day. My review will run in May but what’s a shame about this film is how it doesn’t really mention Rodgers and Hart being Jewish. Nor do they care to cast Words and Music with Jewish actors in Jewish roles. This isn’t surprising seeing as how Hollywood’s systemic problem when it comes to Jewish roles on a screen. You think it’s not good now? It was horrifically bad in the 1930s and 1940s! Gentleman’s Agreement was one of the first films that made it a point to cast a Jewish actor in a Jewish role. Given Rooney’s height, I can see why they went with him as Hart.

Rodgers and Hart had a successful 24-year career on Broadway, less so in Hollywood. They wrote nearly 500 songs until Hart died when he was 47 years old in 1943. Words and Music sees Rodgers marrying Dorothy Feiner (Janet Leigh), which is one of the few accurate things in the film. As for Hart, the fictional version does his best to woo Peggy Lorgan McNeil (Betty Garrett) but she rejects him, causing the depression that ultimately kills him. In real life, Hart was an alcoholic, presumably because of both his height and being gay. You wouldn’t know it from watching the film. That’s how much they sanitized the story!

There are some highlights in the film. Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland appear together for the last time on the big screen as they sing “I Wish I Were in Love Again.” Garland owed the studio money for medical bills so she never saw a penny of the $100,000 that she was paid to perform in the film. Lena Horne crushes it with her nightclub performance of “Where or When” and “The Lady Is a Tramp.” Unfortunately, Southern theaters likely cut those performances without damaging the rest of the film’s story. Meanwhile, Gene Kelly choregraphed the film’s show-stopping finale, a seven-minute ballet featuring Kelly and Vera-Ellen dancing to “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.”

There are 22 songs featured throughout Words and Music. Some of the hits include:

• “Blue Moon”
• “Thou Swell”
• “Manhattan”
• “Johnny One Note”
• “I Wish I Were in Love Again”
• “Where or When”
• “The Lady Is a Tramp”

A 20-minute 2007 featurette, A Life in Words and Music, goes behind the scenes of their relationship, let alone the film. It gets into what’s real and what isn’t. More than that, we learn more about their real lives than we do throughout the entire film. The only thing that’s really true–because Rodgers was a private man–was the way that the duo met. From thereon out, it is a complete work of fiction. That being said, Rodgers serious considered quitting the business until they got their first show on Broadway.

How did Richard Rodgers respond to Words and Music? He praised the music in a letter to MGM producer Arthur Freed:

It is difficult for me to tell you how happy I am with the way the songs are done in Words and Music. The orchestrations and instrumental handling are exciting and gratifying, but equally wonderful to me is the performance of these songs by such an extraordinary cast of stars. I cannot thank you enough for it.

According to author and film historian Richard Barrios, “the reality of it was, he wasn’t terribly happy.” Barrios also provides audio commentary for the Blu-ray release.

Rodgers’s daughter, Mary Rodgers Guettel, comments that “we all thought the movie was ridiculous right away.” She was outraged because of how the two daughters were depicted. She’d rather have seen something else instead! That’s not exactly high praise. This doesn’t change the fact that the songs are timeless and still resonate with audiences.

Words and Music may be a musical celebration of the two Jewish songwriters with its beautiful staging of songs, but it’s a sanitary version of their actual story and not much truth to it. We’ll see if Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon is any better–at first glance, the lack of Jewish actors playing Jews is a disappointment. Is authentic representation too much to ask for in Hollywood?

Bonus Features

• Commentary by Film Historian Richard Barrios
• Featurette: A Life in Words and Music
• Unused musical sequences:
  • You’re Nearer (Perry Como)
  • Lover (Perry Como & M-G-M Orchestra and Chorus)
• Audio-only musical outtakes
• Classic MGM cartoon: THE CAT THAT HATED PEOPLE
• Classic MGM Short: GOING TO BLAZES!
• Original Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: Norman Taurog
SCREENWRITER: Fred F. Finklehoffe
CAST: June Allyson, Perry Como, Judy Garland, Lena Horn, Gene Kelly, Mickey Rooney, Ann Sothern, with Tom Drake, Cyd Charisse, Betty Garrett, Janet Leigh, Marshall Thompson, Mel Tormé, Vera-Ellen, Jeanette Nolan, Richard Quine, Clinton Sundberg, Dee Turnell

MGM released Words and Music in theaters on December 9, 1948. Grade: 2/5

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