Product Details

• Actors: Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King, Martha Vickers, Bruce Bennett
• Directors: Raoul Walsh
• Writers: Catherine Turney, Jo Pagano, Maritta M. Wolff, W.R. Burnett
• Producers: Arnold Albert, Jack L. Warner
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: March 7, 1994
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302946522
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,076 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

This can be considered out of print, and hard to find now.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars captivating tale, October 9, 2003

By 

Karen Sampson Hudson "Karen Sampson Hudson" (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Man I Love [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ida Lupino shines in this 40s era tale of music, love, woe, and choices. Robert Alda turns in a well-honed performance as the gangster who woos but never wins Ida, a nightclub torch singer. The musical numbers are well-produced and memorable in timeless, classic fashion.

"The Man I Love" is a marvelous vehicle to display the talents of Lupino, who plays "Petie" with a blend of toughness and tenderness that will win you over. The movie is a blend also, of ordinary pot-boiler plotting and luminous, subtle touches that make it well worth seeing. Recommended!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ida Has Her Hands Full, January 3, 2003

By 

James L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man I Love [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ida Lupino stars as a tough torch singer who comes to the aid of her family, all the while trying to deal with her own heartbreak. One sister, Andrea King, is trying to raise her son while her husband, John Ridgely, recovers from the War in a psychiatric ward. Another sister, Martha Vickers, is afraid to start dating/living life. Her brother, Warren Douglas, is working for a gangster, Robert Alda, and getting himself into tighter and tighter situations. Then there is the couple across the hall, Dolores Moran and Don McGuire, whose personal problems spill over into the family as well. And while all that is happening, Lupino embarks on a difficult romance with Bruce Bennett, a troubled pianist worn down by life. Obviously Ida has got her hands full. Lupino is very good in the central role, able to mix toughness with tenderness in a way that few actresses can. Alda is surprisingly good as the gangster who uses everyone, but can't get Ida to fall in love with him the way he has fallen for her. The rest of the cast are strong as well. I like the way director Raoul Walsh starts the film off with the great rendition of "The Man I Love", which helps to set a mood and atmosphere. The film gives the viewer a real sense of life in 1946 in Los Angeles.Walsh always paced his films well, and he keeps this film moving, giving it an edge that it needs. Watch how Ida manhandles McGuire at the end! Although the music, direction, and supporting performances are all important to the film's success, it is ultimately Ida Lupino that makes this film work.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good enough that it's frustrating it's not better., June 27, 2002

By 

Doghouse King "eddie_denman" (Omaha, NE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Man I Love [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Man I Love is a rather hard-boiled soaper in the vein of Mildred Pierce. There is both too little plot and too much plot, but a brief summation would read thus: Ida Lupino uses her wit, wisdom, toughness and trailer-park pulchritude to solve all her family's problems in 90 minutes. There's also plenty of time set aside for musical interludes (some great, some ehh), so actually she solves them in more like 70.

This film paints its picture in very broad strokes: so much is touched upon and so little is dwelt upon that the story is never tremendously involving, despite all the things that it does well and all its charm. I'm all for a quick-pace, but this is sort of like the Classics Illustrated version of a better, more detailed movie.

Ida plays a world-weary torch singer (Hey, she's better than Britney) who leaves New York for LA, and immediately becomes involved in a myriad of soapy situations. Her younger sister watches over the brood, without the help of her war hero husband, who is currently suffering from war fatigue in an Army hospital. Ida sees that situation through, and does more. She helps her youngest sister get dolled up and go on a date (although she neeeded no help, IMHO); she steers her brother away from a life of crime; gets a job as a singer for the gangster who was corrupting her brother; and prevents a couple of murders, one by slapping around an armed man. She even makes time to assist the couple across the hall, by helping to heal his injured hand and wising him up to her infidelity. Along the way she flirts with several men, and falls for a burned-out piano player who can't truly reciprocate because his ex took with her "the best part of him" (no comments from you). After all this, her work done, she leaves her family for parts unknown, like a female Shane. But not before seeing the Man She Loves onto his boat and giving him time to rip off a famous line from Casablanca.

There is some good dialogue, oodles of class, some tenderness and some toughness. There are also a few risqué bits - for 1946 - the censors must have missed. (Ida and the gangster each seem to be wearing wedding rings; the gangster is an unrepentant wolf; the lady across the hall is none to too happy to have kids and thinks very little of them, hinting marriage was only necessary.) This movie likely would have been dynamite if made in, say, 1933, prior to the Hays Code.

The whole cast is good. But Alda's gangster (bringing to mind Richard Conte in The Big Combo) and, of course, Lupino, stand out. Neither Bette nor Joan could have done this quite as well as Ida. In addition, Walsh's direction is exemplary without ever being intrusive; he's one of the most underrated helmsmen ever.

However, Martha Vickers, as the youngest sister, is wasted. She played Carmen in The Big Sleep, and never got the opportunities due her after that; maybe she was just too darn cute. Alan Hale (as the gangster's kindly second-banana) is wasted even more than Vickers, given only a minute or so of screen time and two great lines. Overall the film just tries to do too much, and squanders much potential.

Enjoyable but never inspiring, this movie is as hackneyed as this review turned out to be. My apologies.

See also: The movies aforementioned; Road House (1948); They Drive By Night; Dance, Fools, Dance; The Bureau of Missing Persons; the Thin Man Series; This Gun For Hire.