The Man I Love (1947)

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Jo Pagano (adaptation)
Catherine Turney (adaptation)

Release Date:

11 January 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

There should be a law against knowing the things I found out about men!

Plot:

Visiting her two sisters and brother, singer Petey Brown lands a job at small-time-hood Nicky Toresca's nightclub...

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Nightclub | Piano Player | Family Reunion | Jazz Musician

Cast

Ida Lupino	...	Petey Brown
Robert Alda	...	Nicky Toresca
Andrea King	...	Sally Otis
Martha Vickers	...	Virginia 'Ginny' Brown
Bruce Bennett	...	San Thomas
Alan Hale	...	Riley
Dolores Moran	...	Gloria O'Connor
John Ridgely	...	Roy Otis
Don McGuire	...	Johnny O'Connor
Warren Douglas	...	Joe Brown
Craig Stevens	...	Bandleader
Tony Romano	...	Singer at Bamboo Club
William Edmunds	...	Uncle Tony Toresca
Jimmie Dodd	...	Jimmy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Patricia Barry	...	Chorine (as Patricia White)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Australia:G

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Filmed in mid-1945, but nor released until 1947

Quotes:

Petey Brown: [admiringly] Hey, O'Connor. What kind of vitamins do you use?

Soundtrack:

How Many Hearts Have You Broken (With Those Great Big Beautiful Eyes)

For the love of Ida

Ida Lupino was a magnificent actress who fulfilled the promise of intelligence and talent that always seemed to burn in her eyes by demonstrating her creative moxie as a director. Unfortunately, her career in front of the camera often found her in cast off looking pot-boilers (she got to rummage through what was rejected by Davis, Crawford, and whoever else might be hot at the moment).

This noir-ish romantic weepy with a bad nicotine cough was typical of the sows ears she tried to make fit like silk. Filmed in 1945....and not widely released til early in 1947...it is filled with competent but rather second string talent...many of whom never quite made it to the top rung. Bruce Bennett (who deserves great credit for being one of the few actors to survive being cast as Tarzan without forever being typed and stymied) does his usual low key but very sincere turn as Ida's Piano whiz turned world weary seaman (don't ask). Robert Alda is effectively smarmy as the dame hungry club owner...after Ida and just about every other female with a pulse...it is a shame that playing George Gershwin (in "Rhapsody in Blue") and having this meaty part in a film based around one of the Gershwin's greatest standards didn't lead to bigger and better film roles.

The world weary atmosphere of jaded postwar funk that lingers over the film like a cloud of smoke and stale perfume is More persuasive than the rather clunky script...( you have to give the writers credit for gaul however...the final clinch lines are lifted almost verbatim from "Now Voyager" and "Casablanca"...and tend to make this end up looking more shallow and tacky than it is).

The musical sequences are great...and Ida seems ideally suited for the role of a jam session diva...even if she did have to borrow a voice for the part. The atmosphere of electric bluesy ambiance was seldom captured better on film until Garland nailed it to perfection wailing about "the Man that got away" in 1954.

Unfortunately several numbers are missing from the print shown on TCM (which runs only 89 minutes...and is in DREADFUL shape...with many scratches, spices, breaks, and reals where the images look like something from a cheap public domain dupe of a dupe).

Here's hoping someone in the Warner Brother's Library does some digging...finds the original negative...and restores this..because Ida deserved the very best...even if she seldom got it.