Till The Clouds Roll By (1946)

In 1927, the great American composer Jerome Kern (Robert Walker) attends the opening night of his masterpiece SHOW BOAT. After the show, he reflects on his life and the journey to where he is now. Directed by Richard Whorf (with assistance from Vincente Minnelli), this is a fictionalized version of Kern's life which is used as a showcase for his songs. Kern's life apparently not interesting enough to sustain a two hour plus movie, the writers created fictional characters and made up situations to pad the film between all those glorious songs performed by a top notch cast. I don't know if 1940s audiences bought this film as fact but it plays out like just about every other movie musical biography. Shot in gorgeous three strip Technicolor, the musical numbers justify the film. We get Judy Garland singing Look For The Silver Lining, Lena Horne sings Can't Help Lovin' That Man, Dinah Shore sings The Last Time I Saw Paris, Van Johnson and Lucille Bremer sing and dance to I Won't Dance and Cyd Charisse and Gower Champion dance to Smoke Gets In Your Eyes among them. With June Allyson, Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Van Heflin, Angela Lansbury, Kathryn Grayson, Virginia O'Brien, Tony Martin and Dorothy Patrick.