Product Details

• Actors: Ann Blyth, Paul Newman, Richard Carlson, Gene Evans, Alan King
• Directors: Michael Curtiz
• Writers: Dean Riesner, Nelson Gidding, Oscar Saul, Stephen Longstreet
• Producers: Martin Rackin
• Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: February 21, 1995
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303406971
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,339 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Helen Morgan Story, a musical bio of the great 1920s torch singer, begins with a scene of flappers and jazz babies spontaneously dancing on a train. If you can buy into that kind of crazy history, you might just enjoy this tuneful 1957 drama, the rise-fall-comeback of a tragic showbiz figure (which neglects to include the tragic final act). Ann Blyth, who'd garnered an Oscar nomination for playing Joan Crawford's ingrate daughter in 1945's Mildred Pierce, is Helen Morgan, the Prohibition songstress for whom perching atop a piano became a signature pose. We watch Morgan's early successes crooning in speakeasies, and her wrong moves in her personal life; seems the lady just can't help lovin' a no-good gangster, played by Paul Newman (still very early in his career). Newman's character keeps showing up, like a bad penny, even after Helen is taken up by a wealthy (and married) lawyer, played by Richard Carlson. The many heartbreaks eventually lead to alcohol addiction, which killed the real Morgan in 1941, although the film stops short of her unfortunate ending. Morgan's success in the original production of Show Boat goes by quickly, but the movie includes a decent roster of songs from various stages of her career. Michael Curtiz directed, and his dark eye (and Ted Tetzlaff's widescreen black-and-white cinematography) gives the movie a pleasing film-noir overlay. The biggest problem is Blyth, too small for the role and finally defeated by the simplistic diagnosis of Morgan's problems. Blyth's singing voice was dubbed by Gogi Grant, who has a strong voice that doesn't especially sound like Morgan's. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Little Girl on the Piano with the Great Big Voice, May 7, 2004

By 

Michael C. Smith "[e-mail]" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Helen Morgan Story [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Helen Morgan Story is a formula biopic with equal parts soap, song and gin. The thing that makes it stand out are three very good performances and a wonderful parade of vintage 1920's hits voiced for the star by Gogi Grant.
From the moment the film begins to unreel with its Broadway marquee titles you know you are in for a good old-fashioned tearstained campy drama. Loosely based on the life of Helen Morgan, who is most famous today for creating the role of Julie in the groundbreaking "Show Boat" in the 20's. The film centers on her rise and fall as well as her unrequited love for gangster Larry Maddux.
Playing the title role is Ann Blyth who does her best to give Helen all the pathos, drama and tragedy required in such a story. She does a fine job but one can't help but recall her best work as Veda in Mildred Pierce. Some years earlier.
The real stars of the show are comedian Alan King, TV star Cara Williams and a new guy to pictures by the name of Paul Newman. These three pros take a filmland formula and mix it until it explodes.
Alan King is quite a fine actor as well as a gifted comedian. He imbues the character of Benny Weaver, Larry's partner with life and humor. As Helen's best friend and Benny's moll Cara Williams shines.
But the best performance is given by a very young Paul Newman who shows us just what he could do with the good for nothing huckster role. He soars in the role and gives us a preview of some of the better roles he will fill out in the future from Fast Eddie to Hud.
The black and white cinematography by Ted D. McCord is stunning as are the sets and costumes. And the Warner Brothers orchestra makes the mono soundtrack burst its boundaries to near stereophonic sound. The dirction by Michael Curtiz who had been making films since 1912 is solid and dependable.
One hopes that there may be a DVD release of this film in the future.

(February 18, 2009) And now it is out on DVD in all it's Cinemascope glory. It looks great and the sound is full and gorgous. A must have for any Paul Newan fan as well as fan's of great old standard songs from the 20's.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A typical Hollywood "biography" that transforms an artist's life into a cliché-ridden soap opera..., January 1, 2007

By 

Roberto Frangie "Robert" (Leon, Gto. Mexico) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Why Was I Born? (DVD)

The film explains the decline of Helen Morgan (Ann Blyth) into alcoholism as the result of unsuccessful romances, especially one with Larry Maddux (Newman), a two-bit bootlegger...

Larry is an almost one-dimensional and ultimately unbelievable character, but he does have qualities that are developed further in later Newman films: he is opportunistic, exploitative, smooth-talking, a man from the wrong side of the tracks who tries to better himself...

Like other Newman characters, he is an outlaw--a con man and gangster--and it is noteworthy that Curtiz had directed Cagney, Bogart and other tough guys in Warners' Golden Era... Larry is also the first of Newman's womanizers--detached, rough, abusive, but irresistibly charming and sexy... He manages to seduce Helen while remaining nasty and cynical, then abandons her, only to keep reappearing and ruining her life... At best he can say, "In my own way, Helen, I love you," although in the unconvincing ending, he reforms...

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars musical melodrama supreme, September 28, 2001

By 

Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Helen Morgan Story [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ann Blyth stars as ill-fated torch singer Helen Morgan in the musical biography THE HELEN MORGAN STORY (1957). The movie follows the life of the tragic 1920s songbird from the heights of acclaim in the original Broadway production of "Show Boat" to her dramatic battles with depression and alcoholism.

Inspired by Polly Bergen's searing performance as Morgan in a "Playhouse 90" TV special which aired earlier that same year, producer Jack Warner geared THE HELEN MORGAN STORY as a showcase not for actress Ann Blyth, but rather the popular singer Gogi Grant, whom he employed to supply Blyth's voice for the musical numbers--if the truth be known, Blyth's own singing would have sufficed.

In the tradition of a backstage soap-opera, the more tawdry facts of Morgan's life were glossed over (the "Playhouse 90" screenplay reflected Morgan's life in a more accurate light, having Morgan's mother Lulu as a consultant). Paul Newman plays her stormy boyfriend; Blyth shines (especially in the recreations of the "Show Boat" stage production), and the soundtrack springs to life with such Morgan standards as "Why Was I Born?", "Bill", and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man".

The supporting cast includes Richard Carlson, Gene Evans, Alan King and Cara Williams. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Recommended.