The Great Caruso (1951)

The story of the famed opera tenor Enrico Caruso from child (Peter Edward Price) to man (Mario Lanza). Directed by Richard Thorpe (IVANHOE), this is a highly fictionalized movie biography on Caruso's life. In fact, it gets more things wrong than right but the film was a huge success for MGM, solidified Lanza's standing as movie star and inspired several opera singers (including Placido Domingo) in pursuing a career in opera. Although made in 1951, it could have been made in 1931, that's how much it creaks! Every movie bio cliche is there and you could tick the boxes off as you watched it. Lanza wasn't much of an actor but who watches a Lanza movie for his acting? You watch it to hear him sing and the film is filled with over 20 musical sequences in which he sings. The film did spawn a hit song The Loveliest Night Of The Year but it's sung by Ann Blyth (as Mrs. Caruso), not Lanza. Although the film was a hit at the box office, the Caruso family sued for damages because it was more fiction than fact and they won! Example: the film has him dying on stage at the Metropolitan Opera when in reality, he died in a hotel room in Naples, Italy. With the famed Metropolitan soprano Dorothy Kirsten, Carl Benton Reid, Eduard Franz, Alan Napier, Sherry Jackson, Angela Clarke, Ludwig Donath, Ian Wolfe and Yvette Duguay.