Review of Interrupted Melody

I really enjoyed this movie, which I caught purely by chance. Although an opera lover all my life, and I belong to the relevant generation to have known her, I needed this film to jog my memory about Marjorie Lawrence. I was delighted and impressed with Eleanor Parker's performance: she brought to it what I should imagine must be something of the slight rambunctiousness of the Australian outback. But much more than that: in spite of a long career on the screen, from a personal standpoint I remember her best as Lenore in another favourite of mine "Scaramouche", where she played a lighthearted romantic opposite to Stewart Granger, and thus I remember her. To see her as the Diva was truly interesting and impressive. Using the phrase of another reviewer, she was totally believable. Her miming to the voice track was almost perfect and - as far as I could see - became a little ragged only once - during a rendering of "Softly Awakes My Heart" from "Samson & Delilah" by Camille Saint-Saens - and we're talking here about French, German and Italian libretti! Her body movements were also just a little exaggerated for an opera singer on stage: she tended to throw her arms about rather too much, and her "Madame Butterfly" suffered from this affliction. But on the whole (an overwhelming whole, I might add), I found this biopic completely heartwarming and totally enjoyable.