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Overview

User Rating:
6.4/10   390 votes
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Down 1% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Guy Bolton (story)
Ben Feiner Jr. (adaptation)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Words and Music on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
31 December 1948 (USA) more
Tagline:
The BIGGEST musical! more
Plot:
Fictionalized story of the songwriting partnership of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. full summary | add synopsis
User Comments:
All singing, all dancing, all star cast of thousands more (25 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

June Allyson ... Alisande La Carteloise (in "A Connecticut Yankee")
Perry Como ... Eddie Lorrison Anders / Himself

Judy Garland ... Herself

Lena Horne ... Herself

Gene Kelly ... Himself

Mickey Rooney ... Lorenz Hart

Ann Sothern ... Joyce Harmon
Tom Drake ... Richard Rodgers

Cyd Charisse ... Margo Grant
Betty Garrett ... Peggy Lorgan McNeil

Janet Leigh ... Dorothy Feiner Rodgers
Marshall Thompson ... Herbert Fields
Mel Tormé ... Himself
Vera-Ellen ... Herself
Jeanette Nolan ... Mrs. Hart
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Additional Details

Runtime:
120 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Judy Garland's two songs "I Wish I Were in Love Again" and "Johnny One Note" are sung at the same party, but they were filmed several weeks apart from each other. You can tell based on the longer length of her hair in the second number and the thicker, belt-less waistline (from a slight weight gain, perhaps) in the dress she is wearing. more
Goofs:
Continuity: At the Hollywood party at Hart's home, he and Judy are singing a duet. Her dress is cinched with a belt in that scene, however, when she sings a solo just after that, the dress is beltless and her waist is a bit wider. Her hair is also longer than the previous scene. more
Quotes:
Peggy Lorgan McNeil: I don't think I quite understand.
Lorenz Hart: You will after you've known me ten or fifteen years.
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Movie Connections:
Spoofed in It's a Great Feeling (1949) more
Soundtrack:
Way Out West more

FAQ

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful.
All singing, all dancing, all star cast of thousands, 20 February 2007
10/10
Author: morgana-31 from Perth, Western Australia

I first saw this movie on TV in 1963. I was only 13 years old. What caused me to sit down and watch was the mention of Mel Torme in the opening credits. I had only just become favorably aware of this man's music but had never seen as much as a photo of him.

This was my first experience of 'The Musical' genre of film and I was enchanted from beginning to end. Well apart from the Mel Torme bit. I think we got more of Larry Hart looking miserable, and his mother looking out of the window (no doubt wondering when this party was going to end. It's 4am and she probably needed her beauty sleep) than we did of Mel.

I was stunned by the brilliant 'Slaughter On 10th Avenue' sequence. There was stuff like this available and yet kids my age were listening to the Beatles? What on earth was wrong with the world? And Lena Horne's out-standing performance of The Lady Is A Tramp just blew me away.

Plot? OK it was sanitized but I didn't know that at the time. Homosexuality was never mentioned back then. I just figured that anyone who would write a song like 'My Funny Valentine' would never score with the ladies.

"Your looks are laughable - unphotographable" Come on. You can't be serious?

I finally found this on DVD a few days ago and couldn't believe my luck. I had wanted to see it again ever since reading in Mel Torme's autobiography that he and Richard Rodgers had had a falling out over how to handle the vocals on 'Blue Moon'. Mel had wanted to go with the meaning of the lyrics, example 'you heard me saying a prayer... (pause) for someone I really could care for.

Rodgers had insisted that he stick with the rhyme, example you heard me saying a prayer for (pause) someone I really could care for.

Sorry, Dick, but I'm with Mel on that one.

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