A Song Is Born (1948)

A group of musicologists find that being sheltered for years working on their musical encyclopedia has left them ignorant of contemporary music such as jazz, swing and be-bop. To this end, one of the professors (Danny Kaye) goes out into the world to study this new music. He invites a nightclub singer (Virginia Mayo) to visit the institute and assist his colleagues. She refuses but when the police are after her, she finds it's a good place to hide from the law. Howard Hawks directs this remake of his own 1941 screwball comedy BALL OF FIRE. It's pretty much a faithful remake but this time with songs and Technicolor added to the mix. Kaye and Mayo do quite well standing in for Cooper and Stanwyck but the music feels like padding out but it's still a decent effort. Fans of jazz and swing get the treat of seeing/hearing such greats as Benny Goodman (who unlike the others has a character to play rather than play himself), Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton, Page Cavanaugh and Mel Powell. With Steve Cochran, Sidney Blackmer, Hugh Herbert, Felix Bressart, Paul Langton, Esther Dale and repeating her role from the 1941 film, Mary Field.