Whether you enjoy musicals from the Golden Age of Hollywood, are a Jose Ferrer fan, or just want to watch a good movie, look no further than “Deep In My Heart†(1954). Ferrer, as you’ve never seen him, stars as talented Hungarian-born American composer Sigmund Romberg. The supporting cast includes Merle Oberon, Doe Avedon, and Helen Traubel.
Hollywood biopics are notoriously inaccurate, but here are two reasons to watch “Deep In My
Heart:â€
1.) The music Sigmund Romberg wrote some of the most memorable music of his generation, from the “Leg of Mutton†rag to “The Student Prince†to “The Desert Song.†“Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise,†from the operetta “New Moon†is still a jazz classic. One of the highlights of the movie is Jose Ferrer’s performance of “Jazz-A-Doo,†where he tells the entire plot for the new show in roughly seven minutes. Ferrer revealed that he had to redo the number several times because the crew kept laughing and messing up the soundtrack. The director finally closed the set to all but those needed to film the scene, and managed to get the scene on film.
2.) The all-star cameos During the 40’s and 50’s, MGM perfected the composer/lyricist biopic (“Till the Clouds Roll By,†“Words and Music,†etc.). The storylines were generally thin and largely fictitious, but for a studio that boasted “more stars than there are in the heavens†the answer was to pad the movie with production numbers starring many of those stars. “Deep In My Heart†was no exception, with Paul Henreid as Florenz Zigfeld and Walter Pidgeon as J.J. Shubert. The two most notable cameos, however, are Rosemary Clooney singing “Mr. and Mrs.†with Ferrer, her real-life husband at the time, and Gene Kelly performing “I Love to Go Swimmin’ with Wimmen†with his brother, Fred, the only time they performed together on screen.
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