Deep in My Heart Reviews

DEEP IN MY HEART is an excellent screen biography of composer Sigmund Romberg, a power in American musicals for almost four decades. Romberg wrote more than 2,000 songs, did the scores for more than 80 plays, revues, and operettas, and still had time to lead a happy life. Born in Hungary, Romberg came to the US early, and his rise was steady and steep. Ferrer does well in the role of the young man who got his start in a little cafe on New York's Second Avenue. Its proprietress (Helen Traubel) encourages his work, as does Lazar Berrison (David Burns), a Brill Building song pusher. Romberg has a commercial smash when he changes the tempo of one of his tunes to ragtime, and a series of small-time shows follow until Romberg has such a big hit with "Maytime" that one house can't hold it and, for the first time, two companies present the show on Broadway simultaneously. The picture mixes all the elements necessary to make a successful musical: great songs like "One Alone," "The Desert Song," "Lover Come Back to Me" and "Will You Remember"; dances by Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell; singing by Vic Damone, Jane Powell, Tony Martin and Rosemary Clooney; and, of course, superior acting by all. The film takes some liberties with history and ascribes some songs to the wrong shows, but why carp? It's solid musical entertainment.