The Toast Of New Orleans (1950)

In 1905 Louisiana, a bayou fisherman (Mario Lanza) with a magnificent voice is discovered by an opera impresario (David Niven) and urged to come to New Orleans to study opera. Lanza's MGM debut THAT MIDNIGHT KISS with Metro's resident soprano Kathryn Grayson had been a big hit so the studio was eager to re-team them and THE TOAST OF NEW ORLEANS was the result. It's a marginally better film than the first one but it's still the standard formula. Lanza is appealing and Grayson of the heart shaped mouth is quite attractive (until she begins trilling) but the large doses of unimaginatively staged opera sequences slow down the film. Much better are the musical numbers like Be My Love and the dances staged by Eugene Loring. One can't complain about the Technicolor eye candy either and the technical aspects are okay but the "fish out of water" indignities played out by Lanza and J. Carrol Naish as his uncle become annoying after awhile. Directed by Norman Taurog. With Rita Moreno (who gets to show off her dancing skills), James Mitchell, Clinton Sundberg and Richard Hageman.