So This Is Love

So This Is Love


(aka The Grace Moore Story)

Warner Bros. - First National, 1953, Color, 101 minutes, ***½

Released July, 1953



Forget her string of Broadway successes. Forget even the flowers-and-candlelight ardor of handsome bachelors. There's only one great passion in Grace Moore's life: to star at New York's Metropolitan Opera House.



Flowing with songs popularized by Moore and excerpts from three classic operas, So This Is Love is a polished gem about how the stage and screen star (a Best Actress Oscar nominee for 1934's One Night of Love) sang her dream into reality. It's a perfect match of star and role: Kathryn Grayson (Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate), who also had an enduring ambition to perform on the operatic stage, portrays Moore. A colorful supporting cast plays the Who's Who roles of other show-biz greats ("You tell him George Gershwin sent you," a young man at the ivories tells Moore when providing a job lead.). Among the co-stars, in only his second big-screen role, is an entertainer who'd later score big on the home screen: Merv Griffin.




Kathryn Grayson turns in a wonderful performance, and her climactic performance of Mimi in an excerpt from "La Bohème" is extraordinary. "Brava!" for the incomparable Kathryn Grayson in one of her finest films

Produced by: Henry Blanke

Directed by: Gordon Douglas

Assistant Director: Oren Haglund

Screen Play by: John Monks, Jr.

Based on Grace Moore's autobiography You're Only Human Once

Musical Direction: Ray Heindorf

Music Adapted by: Max Steiner

Vocal Arrangements: Charles Henderson

Musical Numbers Staged and Directed by: LeRoy Prinz

Art Director: Edward Carrere

Set Decorator: George James Hopkins

Wardrobe by: Leah Rhodes

Makeup Artist: Gordon Bau

Costume Design: Leah Rhodes

Sound by: Oliver S. Garretson, David Forrest

Director of Photography: Robert Burks

Color by Technicolor

Technicolor Color Consultant: Mitchell O. Kovaleski

Film Editor: Folmar Blangsted



Cast: Kathryn Grayson [Grace Moore], Merv Griffin [Buddy Nash], Joan Weldon [Ruth Obre], Walter Abel [Col. Moore], Rosemary DeCamp [Aunt Laura Stokley], Jeff Donnell [Henrietta Van Dyke], Douglas Dick [Bryan Curtis], Ann Doran [Mrs. Moore], Margaret Field [Edna Wallace], Mabel Albertson [Mary Garden], Fortunio Bonanova [Dr. Marafioti], Marie Windsor [Marilyn Montgomery], Noreen Corcoran [Grace Moore at age 8], The Szonys [Dance Specialty], Lillian Bronson [Mrs. Wilson Green], Ray Kellogg [John McCormack], Roy Gordon [Otto Kahn], Moroni Olsen [Arnold Reuben], Mario Siletti [Gatti Casazza], Charles Meredith [Arthur Bodansky], Bill Boyett [George Gershwin]



Musical Program: [0:00] So This Is Love (sung by Chorus behind titles); [0:05] In Dat Great Gittin' Up Morning (sung by Noreen Corcoran and Church Congregation); [0:06] Christ the Lord Is Risen Today (sung by Kathryn Grayson and Church Congregation); [0:15] Je veux vivre (Juliet's Waltz Song from the opera ROMEO ET JULIETTE, short excerpt sung by Kathryn Grayson); [0:20] Ciribiribin (sung by Kathryn Grayson, interrupted by crowd cheering and singing Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag -- WWI Armistice); [0:26] Ev'rybody Ought to Know How to Do the Tickle Toe (excerpt sung by Kathryn Grayson); [0:32] I'm Just Wild About Harry (sung by amateur singer at nightclub); [0:34] The Kiss Waltz (sung by Kathryn Grayson); [0:38] I Kiss Your Hand Madame (sung by Merv Griffin); [0:57] Voi Che Sapete (from the Opera THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, sung by Kathryn Grayson); [0:58] I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (sung and danced by Kathryn Grayson); [1:07] Oh Me! Oh My! (sung by Kathryn Grayson and Chorus); [1:13] Time on My Hands (sung by Kathryn Grayson and Chorus, extended instrumental bridge danced by The Szonys); [1:21] Remember (sung by Kathryn Grayson); [1:27] Jewel Song ("Ah! je ris de me voir si belle" from the opera FAUST, sung by Kathryn Grayson); [1:34] Si, mi chiamo Mimi (Mimi's Aria) (from LA BOHÈME, sung by Kathryn Grayson)