Friday, February 17, 2006

Music in My Heart

Last night saw Rita Hayworth, Tony Martin, Alan Mowbray and Eric Blore in Music in My Heart, a charming musical featuring conductor Andre Kostelanetz. Martin is a Broadway understudy about to be deported by the Immigration Service. He misses his boat when his taxi crashes into Rita Hayworth's cab. She's on her way to marry a millionaire, whom she misses because of the accident. So Martin goes home with Hayworth to hide out from Uncle Sam in New York's colorful Lower East Side. There, working in an Italian restaurant alongside a colorful Russian cook, he romances Hayworth. A few twists later, the millionaire turns out to have a heart of gold--and Hayworth gets hitched to Martin. This 1940 film is somehow relevant to today's immigration issues, as well as funny. Eric Blore as the millionaire's valet really steals the show. I didn't get it from Netflix, rather on VHS from my corner video rental place, but I just checked, and Netflix has it listed here. It's really worth seeing.

Interestingly Rita Hayworth really did marry a millionaire--the Aga Khan. And Tony Martin married the fabulously long-stemmed dancer Cyd Charisse in 1948. They lived happily ever after, too.