A Song Is Born ( That's Life )

A Song Is Born (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: That's Life
Language Selections:
English ( Mono )
English ( Subtitles )
Spanish ( Mono )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
108 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1948 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Howard Hawks

Written By:
Thomas Monroe
Billy Wilder

Actors:
Danny Kaye ..... Professor Hobart Frisbee
Virginia Mayo ..... Honey Swanson
Benny Goodman ..... Professor Magenbruch
Tommy Dorsey ..... Himself
Louis Armstrong ..... Himself
Lionel Hampton ..... Himself
Charlie Barnet ..... Himself
Mel Powell ..... Himself
Ford Washington Lee ..... Buck
John William Sublett ..... Bubbles
Page Cavanaugh Trio ..... Themselves
The Golden Gate Quartette ..... Themselves
Samba Kings ..... Themselves
Hugh Herbert ..... Professor Twingle
Steve Cochran ..... Tony Crow

Synopsis:

A Song is Born is a musical remake of the 1941 comedy Ball of Fire, with the same producer (Sam Goldwyn) and director (Howard Hawks) at the helm. It will be recalled that the original film, co-scripted by Billy Wilder, was an amusing spin on 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' wherein seven pedantic professors, working on a dictionary of slang, 'adopted' an authority on the subject, breezy burlesque dancer Sugarpuss O'Shea. In the remake, the septet of scholars are working on an encyclopedia of music, but they're held up on the subject of 'swing.' When nightclub singer Honey Swanson (Virginia Mayo), escaping from her gangster suitor Tony Crow (Steve Cochran), takes refuge in the professors' home, she offers to introduce them to the world of popular music. This proves to be quite a tuneful undertaking, since two of the professors are played by Danny Kaye and Benny Goodman! The tang and zest of original plotline has been muted to the point of harmlessness, but the film is saved by the presence of Goodman, his fellow bandleaders Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey and Mel Powell, and specialty performers Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and Buck & Bubbles. A Song is Born was Danny Kaye's final starring vehicle for Sam Goldwyn.

Gangster's moll Honey Swanson goes into hiding when her boyfriend is under investigation by the police. Where better to hide than a musical research institute staffed entirely by lonely bachelors? She gets more than she bargained for when the head of the institute Professor Hobart Frisbee starts to fall for her.

Musical comedy of the efforts of a professor to compile pragmatically a history of jazz. He enters the world of nightclubs, and meets a singer and falls in love with her.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 03 December, 2010.

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