User reviews

For those who did not live in the 40s, this film may appear to be soap-operish. However, one must remember that 60 years of Real and TV soap opera have drastically diminished its impact, leaving us with a feeling that we have seen it all before - forgetting that it was the "first". A blind musician, a wealthy socialite, an "all-knowing" aunt, a musical friend, Rubinstein and Ormandy - what a confection! And the "glue" that holds it all together is the music. After all, it IS "Night Song". Other reviewers have been rather harsh in their criticism of Leith Stevens' concerto. It should be noted that it has been recorded along with other film piano concertos on ELAN CD (Piano in Hollywood)and represents - along with the output of so many others - the greatest "American" symphonic music of the 20th century. Film music never gets its proper due. Whatever "romanticism" in this movie appears far fetched, it's no less plausible than the current crop of "action" films. For those who prefer clanging and banging, this "song" is not for you!

The third of three films featuring Dana Andrews and musician Hoagy Carmichael, and this time, Andrews, instead of being a frontiersman/entrepreneur or a war veteran bombardier to Carmichael's mandolin and then piano playing, progressively-minded moral conscious... like in CANYON PASSAGE and THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES... Dana's a musician too: a blind pianist and ticked off about it, working for and living with Carmichael's jazz club manager, Chick, who winds up in cahoots with lovely rich girl Merle Oberon...

The best scenes happen early when she first meets Andrews at the nightclub with her stuffy friends in tow and he, between jazz sets, is playing a smoky classical composition only she seems to hear, and then pretends to "run into him" first at the beach, and then meeting up for lessons: all the while pretending to be blind. And she's got her own insightful advise-giving friend in Ethel Barrymore.

As for Dana Andrews, the performance is realistic enough throughout the first half that the happy-sappy second part, leading to what would now be considered a Hallmark Channel conclusion, is actually quite welcomed: Being such a genuinely grouchy, hateful jerk without sight, you'll hope he's cured just to give the poor little rich, smitten girl a break...

Who's painted herself into more corners by pretending to be someone else, again: After which NIGHT SONG plays out like a biopic of a famous composer, which it's not. And in one scene, when Dana tells Hoagy's he's a mediocre musician, well... that took some good acting on Dana's part, who, just the year before, was getting "stinking at Butches" (Hoagy's joint) along with Frederic March and Harold Russell.

I intended to watch this 1947 romantic drama to see the talented and most beautiful Jacqueline White in a starring role, but I had to settle seeing Ms. White in a short cameo appearance. The three (3) main stars were Dana Andrews, Hoagy Carmichael, and Merle Oberon and although I wanted to see more of Jacqueline White I was not disappointed with the on screen presence of the aforementioned three stars.

Dan Andrews plays Dan, a blind lyricist and talented pianist who lost his eyesight later on in life, so he does remember how beautiful the world and women were when he had his vision. His best friend is the actor Hoagy Carmichael who plays Chick, a fella who can set his blind buddy straight when he gets into one of his stubborn moods, which seems to occur more often than not.

Dan does not feel sorry for himself since losing his eyesight. Quite to the contrary he despises people who look down upon his blindness as a handicap which is why Dan and Chick are best friends. Into the picture comes a wealthy and beautiful Cathy played by Merle Oberon, who realizes with the assistance of Dan's best friend Chick that having any level of pity on Dan is like putting grease onto a hot fire, so Cathy decides to pretend to be blind so that they appear to have something in common.

I won't spoil the ending for anyone but suffice to say that although sometimes love is blind as they say, love can also conquer peoples fear of the unknown and in this case, love is like a Night Song which makes this film a pleasure to see.

I give the film a satisfying 7 out of 10 IMDb rating having watched the film twice, even if I only got a glimpse of the beautiful Jacqueline White. Well worth seeing, no pun intended.

If you ask me, this film seems undervalued or under-appreciated. I don't know why. RKO's NIGHT SONG stars Dana Andrews as a blind pianist and Merle Oberon as the woman who loves him. The music is wonderful, and while the plot is full of melodramatic complications and a liberal amount of hokum, it still manages to entertain and engage the audience because the characters are well-drawn and well played. The film boasts the added bonus of having Ethel Barrymore and Hoagy Carmichael in the supporting roles.

In some ways, NIGHT SONG reminds me of MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, where Irene Dunne (or Jane Wyman, take your pick) experiences blindness and manages to find love in an unlikely source.

While not considered an 'essential' (in the TCM sense of the word), NIGHT SONG is a studio film that is very well put together and succeeds on many levels.

NIGHT SONG might only appear to be a routine example of the kind of postwar romance that most of the major studios produced. A blind bar pianist (Dana Andrews) is taken up by a wealthy socialite (Merle Oberon), who pretends to be blind herself in order to secure his confidence. After a courtship in San Francisco, the pianist is given sufficient financial backing to have an operation to restore his sight, and receive a concert premiere of his new concerto at Carnegie Hall, New York. He returns to San Francisco, where he meets his beloved, and the two them vow eternal love.

Frank Renton and Dick Irving Hyland's screenplay contains its fair share of intertexts. The idea of a concert performance dates back to Brian Desmond Hurst's huge British wartime hit DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT (1941), that contained the premiere of Addinsell's "Warsaw Concerto," while Andrews's predicament as a war-scarred survivor cross- references Goldwyn's THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), in which the actor had given an equally memorable characterization in a similar role.

Yet nonetheless NIGHT SONG possesses a certain integrity. Director John Cromwell establishes a close bond between Andrews and his boon companion Chick (Hoagy Carmichael, who even gets a solo number), and by doing so suggests the importance of male bonding in an often uncertain world. No one, it seems, knows really what to do with the peace, after having won the war; the only outlet both men can find is playing bands in some cheap SF dive bars.

This relationship is contrasted with the more spiky friendship between Oberon and her boon companion Miss Willey (Ethel Barrymore). The grande dame of the American theater gives one of her more commanding characterizations as a supposed cynic with a heart of gold, who readily understands the agonies her younger friend experiences as she tries to woo the pianist without hurting his feelings. In an environment where people seldom gave vent to their emotions in public, emotional expression is put at a premium.

The end of the movie is enlivened by a live performance from Leopold Stokowski and Eugeme Ormandy playing themselves with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. They do not have to do much, but they set about delivering the concerto (with music by Leith Stevens) with a conviction and gusto that is truly refreshing.

They used to show it on Turner Classic Movies on Ethel Barrymore's birthday (when they would show all of her movies). It contains a wonderful original mini-concerto by film composer, Leith Stevens, written just for this film. I think this movie is wonderful, in part, because it really exemplifies the best sort of films that glamorize classical music and not only give the film-goer a glimpse into the life and excitement of being a musician, but a peak into the collaborative creative process, itself. Many of these films were made in the '30s, '40s and '50s. They are rarely made now; usually films about musicians, especially about classical musicians, alienate the audience from the artists rather than inspiring empathy and a desire to emulate the stars on screen. Also, such clever and moving plots in love stories are fairly rare now. Ironically, it has wonderful scenes where Hoagy Carmichael takes dictation for the blind composer but in real life, Hoagy Carmichael, one of the great jazz musicians of the 20th Century, could not read music. I wonder if the plot was inspired at all by the fate of the '20s Jazz Great, Bix Beiderbeck, who drank himself to death at a young age because he found it increasingly hard to get work in the Paul Whiteman-inspired era of big bands who played from written parts. It also has some wonderful quotable one-liners and great, even profound dialogue, I wish it were available. That a film with such a star-studded line-up should be completely out of print is astounding: Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon, Hoagy Carmichael, Ethel Barrymore, the great pianist, Arthur Rubenstein (who even has a couple of lines), the great Conductor, Eugene Ormandy, and the New York Philharmonic, as it was at its peak at the end of the '40s. There is a lot that is original in this film. For example, The scene in which Dana Andrews gives Merle Oberon a piano lesson is an amazing look at what brilliant interpretation based on musical maturity and advanced education can accomplish. Merle Oberon plays Chopin perfectly but mechanically, and then Dana Andrews plays it perfectly but brings it to life. We hear it from the kitchen along with Carmichael and Barrymore. She tells him archly that she doubts there is much he could teach her, as we hear it the first time together with them, and the second time, he tells her, matching her archness, exactly, "looks like she is improving already." One can neither rent nor buy Night Song. I wonder if it was issued on VHS. I just saw that a 16 mm copy went at auction for several hundred dollars on E-Bay. Pity.

Classy San Francisco socialite Merle Oberon falls in love with blind pianist Dana Andrews, even though he is bitter, cruel, and demeaning, especially to her. But his unpublished concerto piece is overwhelming to her ears, so she creates a strange and unlikely plot to both get his talents out into the world and seduce him. Quality support roles by Hoagie Carmichael and Ethel Barrymore make this watchable, and Oberon and Andrews do their best, but like the grandiose and overwrought concerto, the film can't find any real street cred. The Hoagie songs are far better!

The job of a movie is to give the audience members a bigger slice of life than they would normally experience. Night Song, a classic movie of the post-war 1940's, gives that slice of life with rare grace, elegance and style. Critics have panned it because of the "bad" far-fetched plot, the "bad" music, and "bad" acting.

I like this movie because, quite coincidentally, I personally have digested many of the slices of life in the "far-fetched" plot. The movie is about a piano player/composer who is struck on the head in the prime of his life. I am a piano player/composer who was struck on the head in the prime of my life. We both made it through a war era untouched, he WWII, and I Vietnam, well almost. He is living hand to mouth with his best friend. I am also living hand to mouth with my best friend, my wife. For those who love far-fetched coincidences: The composer's last name is Evans—my grandfather's name before he changed it. The movie was probably shot in 1946, the year I was born. Exactly 20 years later I saw Artur Rubenstein, who acted and performed in this movie, in a concert at the Music Center in Los Angeles--the only time I ever went to such a concert. It opened in Sweden on my birthday. What could be more far-fetched?. The not so far-fetched plot twists were not lost on me. As I watched, I was saying to myself, "What is possible for me? Miracles happen every day! Every success story was improbable before it happened!" After watching the film, I went over to the piano and played my own unfinished concerto once again!

As for the Leith Stevens music, if you didn't like it, say so. If it didn't touch you, say so. I liked it, immensely. It touched me immensely! If you want a thrill, type in Leith Stevens on IMDb. You'll find page after page of musical credits—right up to 2005! The man is a modern master composer played by the greatest performers of that time in this movie! Not bad for "bad" music! The job of film critics is to say what they like and dislike about films and why. They should leave all categorical good and bad thoughts completely out of the conversation.

One measure of the talent of an actor, and some say the only measure of a film, is the ability to transport the mind and the spirit of the viewer to another time and place. I was completely transported by this movie. I was perfectly comfortable with ALL the performances, by some of the most distinguished actors of the era, because I was ready, willing and able to be transfixed; and this film is transfixing! Let's get it on DVD!

Dana Andrews and Merle Oberon (the latter playing George Sand in skirts to Andrews' moody Chopin) spend this slick soap opera (set mostly in San Francisco but almost entirely reliant upon back projection) awash with name-dropping and purple prose hunched over a piano with a faraway look in their eyes; but only Andrews is actually supposed to be blind.

Atmospherically shot by Lucien Ballard, with classy comic relief by Ethel Barrymore and Hoagy Carmichael; at the finale (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) Rubinstein plays Andrews' own composition at Carnegie Hall. The End.

Bearing more than a distant resemblance with "magnificent obsession" ,Stahl's tear jerker of the thirties (remade by Douglas Sirk in the fifties )"Night Song " is less melodramatic ,but ,mainly in its second part ,drags on a little bit;the movie features two real life musicians :Arthur Rubinstein in the flesh ,and Hoagy Carmichael whose songs were covered even by Beatle George Harrison ("Baltimore Oriole"," Hong Hong Blues) and his influence shows in McCartney's song "baby's request" .

Dana Andrews is reliable as ever ,and Madame Barrymore provides good support (dig the line when she tells her niece that all she wants is peace);Merle Oberon's playing is a bit emotionally remote ;the music is omnipresent ,classical stuff or Carmichael's "monkey song" .But the story itself is a bit derivative.

I sought out this movie on the recommendation of Hollywood history podcaster Karina Longworth whose latest in-depth series focuses on the rivalry between those powerful Golden Age gossip-columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. This movie was produced by Parsons' daughter Harriet which is why it came into her orbit.

I have found director John Cromwell's work to be interesting, likewise his victimisation and later exile from Hollywood as a result of the Blacklist in the 50's. On the face of it though, this feature plays like a straightforward lush, romantic melodrama, centring much on classical music and if it has any leftist leanings, I certainly couldn't see any sign of them.

Merle Oberon is the rich, bored and single New York society girl who loves classical music and who concert-goes with her tough-on-the-outside maiden aunt, played by Ethel Barrymore. After another concert where she's being squired by an empty-headed toff, she ends up in a restaurant where the popular house-band is led by pianist and songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. Also in the band slumming it is Dana Andrews blind pianist, a cynical sourpuss by nature but in fact a talented player and indeed composer of music. Since he lost his sight, however, he's stopped work on his first concerto even though everyone tells him it's good.

Intrigued by both his talent and his truculence, Oberon decides that the only way to get past Andrews' blind spot is to pretend she's blind herself, which unlikely trick she manages to pull off with the initially reluctant assistance of Barrymore and Carmichael's connivance. Will Oberon's masquerade win Andrews' heart and can she turn him back to composing.

The fantastical plot stretches credibility just too far, but I enjoyed the acting. I've always liked Andrews and he doesn't disappoint here as the troubled piano-tinkler while Oberon is fine too as his millionairess girl-friend who leads him on. Good as they both are, it's Barrymore and Carmichael, who also gets one very funny number of his own, with their numerous witty asides, who frequently steal their scenes.

The movie at times can't seem to wait to get to its big ending where wonders never cease and we have to sit through a full-orchestra concerto-piece along the way to the climax. Cromwell directs with some style and I especially liked the device he used to obscure Oberon's features as Andrews obviously recollects his happiest meetings with her but of course can't put a face to her.

A pleasant, easy-to-watch movie, especially if you're into classical music but in the end I'd say that the plotting betrayed a little too much of the fanciful all the way to its rather predictable outcome.

My journey to seeing the movie Night Song is a bit unusual. I was driving down the road one day listening to the local classical music station and they played this piano concerto by some guy I never heard of before, Leith Stevens. Since I am a classical musician and I was rather favorably struck by the piece, a sort of combo in style between Ravel and Rachmaninoff, I was curious when I found out that the piece was featured in a romantic Hollywood flick, Night Song. I then looked up the film on YouTube and was flabbergasted to find a high-quality video of Artur Rubenstein, Eugene Ormandy and the NY Phil playing the piece--pure gold! Still, what kind of movie was this?

I soon found out that schlock was a reasonable one word assessment. Apparently the movie was about a pianist/composer who was blinded in an accident. A rich socialite hears him playing piano in a club one night, and falls in love at first sight. Problem is, he is embittered, and the only way that she can crack his hard exterior is to pretend that she is also blind. Gradually she thaws the exterior and convinces him to get back to composing to enter a contest to make enough money for an eye operation, etc.

I watched the movie out of some morbid curiousity, and am happy to report that it is A) completely ridiculous and melodramatic in its plotting and B) really very likable in terms of its execution, especially if you are into cheesy romantic movies. Good performances all around from Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon and their support actors Hoagy Charmichael and Ethel Barrymore. Great art it ain't (except for the spectacular performance of the concerto) but anyone into this sort of old-fashioned romantic stuff will love it. So dive in if you are so inclined.

Dana Andrews is famous for his film noirs, but he had more of a range than looking good in a tilted hat while solving a murder mystery. In Night Song, he plays a blind piano player who's angry at the world. He plays in a nightclub, and when poor little rich girl Merle Oberon takes notice of him, he doesn't take kindly to her. He thinks she's just taking an interest in a "charity of the week" and he doesn't want pity. What's Merle to do? Dana's a handsome man, and he's talented, too!

Unfortunately, she does something really bad. This is a drama, folks, and sometimes in dramas, characters make decisions that make the audience cringe. Merle leaves Dana alone for a bit, long enough for him to forget about her, then gets friend Hoagy Carmichael to arrange a new introduction. This time, she isn't a wealthy woman looking to support him: she's a poor, recently blinded woman trying to adjust to her new dark world. Do you think anything might go wrong with that situation?

I would definitely recommend this movie if you like Dana or Merle, old romances, or good music. Leith Stevens earned a Hot Toasty Rag nomination for his lovely and unusual piano score. This is a great melodrama to watch on a rainy afternoon.

Merle Oberson, rich San Francisco socialite, goes out for a nightcap at a jazz joint after a classical concert and flips over pianist Dana Andrews in Hoagy Carmichael's combo. Being a rich gal, she usually gets what she wants, but Andrews gives her the air. He's blind so the beautiful Ms. Oberson's charms don't impress him a mite.

She talks it over with Carmichael and our boy Dana is a musical genius, but the blindness has left him bitter. So in order to help him find his muse, she pretends she's blind.

Now if that don't sound like the silliest romantic plot you ever heard, you haven't seen too many old Hollywood classics. Andrews and Oberon looked downright embarrassed as did Ethel Barrymore playing Oberon's aunt.

But the film has the saving grace of the abundantly talented Hoagy Carmichael. The highlight of the film is him singing and playing his song, Who Killed the Black Widow. Now that was muse well worth finding.

This was a very outstanding film for viewers who loved Merle Oberon, Dana Andrews, Ethel Barrymore and Hoagy Carmichael during the height of their careers in 1948. In this film, Cathy,(Merle Oberon),"The Broken Melody",'34, a rich woman who falls deeply in love with Dana Andrews,(Dan),"The Best Years of Our Lives",'46, who is blind and is a down and out piano player and composer. Dan has a great pal who is also a musician and they work and live together in a Jazz club and try to make ends meet. Dan's buddy is Hoagy Carmichael,(Chick),"To Have & Have Not",'44 who gives a great supporting role and is quite funny through out the entire picture. There is plenty of Classical music and a great appearance of a famous conductor and pianist. The is lots of romance, drama and comedy and a very unusual ending.

Socialite Cathy Mallory (Merle Oberon) falls for blind piano player Dan Evans (Dana Andrews). She is dissatisfied and he's bitter. She pretends to be blind to get close to him and help him finish his music.

The premise is a bit convoluted. I don't exactly buy it. It may be a case of show it, not tell it. In the movie, Chick tells Cathy the premise. In the end, I don't think I could ever buy into it. It's not simply about being realistic. It's a moral dilemma. She is lying to him after all. There is an uncomfortableness to it. Also he needs to choose Mary right away. It seems unromantic for him to not. The heart is mostly in the right place but the details don't work.

This film predates my birth by ten years, but after just seeing it on TCM, I had to weigh in. Overlong? ...well probably, and certainly contrived, given the plot. But somehow, it works, and does so beautifully.

Both Andrews and Oberon do the best they can with their characters: he, a blind pianist playing in dives; she, a wealthy socialite who likes to go slumming. Enamoured by him, she feigns blindness in order to insinuate her way into his bitter existence. Both Hoagy Charmichael and stalwart Ethel Barrymore add comic bite and the requisite amount of wisdom as they lend their support to the ruse. And there are some cleaver twists which keep the game running just when one would think they would otherwise send it careening off the tracks. And it's hard for me to think of another film in which Merle Oberon was more beautiful.

Set your reality check to its lowest setting and enjoy this classic sudser. And, if you're not a fan of classical music, this film just might change that!