Bis die Wolken vorüberzieh'n

This biographical movie about the life and music of Jerome Kern has a number of good sequences that make it worth watching. A great deal of the movie consists simply of recreations of stage numbers from Kern's many musicals, and indeed these account for many of the best parts of the movie. It also adds a light and highly stylized account of his career, which is often bland, but occasionally has some nice moments.

It starts with Kern, at the height of his popularity, attending the opening of "Show Boat", and it features a lengthy staging of portions of that show. From there, it has Kern telling the story of his career up to that point, his work with a fictional mentor and later with collaborator Oscar Hammerstein, and his marriage. These episodes are frequently interlaced with more musical numbers of varying lengths.

The pattern works well enough in general, as something of a slight variant of the usual musical format. The main flaw is that it is really a bit too long for the material it contains. Much of it has little real substance as a story, and it works better as light entertainment. It does at times touch on some real issues, most particularly in following the mentor's daughter as she grows up.

Robert Walker is solid as Kern, and Van Heflin gets some good moments portraying the wise, slightly grouchy mentor. But some of the best moments are provided not by any of the main characters but by stars like Judy Garland, Lena Horne, and June Allyson, who appear in the musical numbers. Most of these are enjoyable, and a couple of them are show-stoppers. They probably provide the main reason for watching the movie as a whole.

Well this is an interesting film from the times when MGM was simply an enormous studio pouring out more film then, it seems we could ever watch.

I have to say this film is simply boring and the length is far too long. The idea of the film is great and there's one more factor that makes it memorable.

They say MGM had more stars then were in the galaxy. They have plenty in this film and some still stand today. Judy (Garland), Angela (Lansbury) and Frank (Sinatra) all gave the film zest with their musical numbers. However the only problem with the film is, it's very hard to watch in just one showing.

However if you like the history of MGM, watch the studio with power, zest and plenty of stars to pass the time as those clouds roll by.

Jerome Kern died while MGM's bio-pic TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY was still in the pre-production stage--and while Kern had been more than willing for MGM to tell all, his estate was considerably more reticent. In order to avoid any legal issues, MGM scrapped their original intentions, wrote up a fluffy script that bore little similarity to Kern's life, and crammed the film with every musical star available in a non-stop series of drop-dead-stunning production numbers.

The result may be extremely bad biography, but leading man Robert Walker and co-star Van Heflin keep the sentimental story moving--and the musical numbers are piled on top of each other so quickly that one doesn't really question it. The film opens with a lengthy montage from SHOWBOAT, Kern's innovative masterpiece, that features knock-out performances from Lena Horne, Katheryn Grayson, and Virgina O'Brien, and then quickly segues into a series of star-solos that feature June Allyson, Gower Champion, Cyd Charisse, Angela Lansbury, Dinah Shore, and Frank Sinatra.

Along the way we are also treated to an extended cameo by Judy Garland, performing "Look For The Silver Lining" precisely as Marilyn Miller played it on stage and singing "Who?" to a staircase of chorus boys--which Garland was said to find most amusing, considering that she was pregnant at the time. Also notable is Lucille Bremer in the role of Robert Walker's stage-struck ward; although her star quickly faded, Bremer is an attractive performer and shows her talent for song and dance here by teaming with Van Johnson for a spirited version of "I Won't Dance." TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY will not appeal to most casual viewers, for the story line and script are much too weak. But musical fans will love this one all the way from Lansbury doing a Cockney "Spoon With Me" to Sinatra belting out "Old Man River." As a Jerome Kern song-and-dance fest, the movie can't be beat, and it should have a place in every musical fan's collection.

Unfortunately, TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY has slipped into public ___domain. DVD releases abound, but none seem to offer respectable picture or sound; if you can find the original MGM video release, grab it.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I gave Till the Clouds Roll By a 5/10. It's worth seeing for the music, and I'd have rated it higher had it been shortened to just the music. It could have got another bump by allocating the entire time to performances -- there was time for over twice as many songs, and there's no problem finding enough good Kern songs to fill the time. Kern wrote well over 1000 songs, and though of course not all are memorable, finding 50 or 100 good ones is easy.

But the choice and arrangements are nearly random. The order in which the songs are presented makes little musical or dramatic sense. They are done by a variety of performers with no consistency. The time after Show Boat is mostly ignored -- hey folks, Kern was actively writing for another 15 years and did his best work from Show Boat on. So even had the movie contained a full three hours of music, the best I could call it would be a haphazard revue with very good performers and memorable songs.

The worst, as others have pointed out, is the story line. To make it clear: THIS STORY LINE IS ALMOST ENTIRELY FICTITIOUS. Oh, of course the shows mentioned are accurately described. But I own a biography of Kern, and the name "Hessler" does not appear -- the character of Jim Hessler is totally fictitious. Kern's wife Eva was British, but the circumstances of their meeting do not resemble the movie. It's probably true that Kern just missed sailing on the Lusitania, but for totally different reasons (Frohman planned the trip for both of them, and Kern overslept). Etc etc ad nauseum. Why bother? The movie would have been much improved by letting the music speak for itself.

Edward

I have always liked this movie and as time goes on it seems to be a bit dated but if you like Technicolor and musicals you will like this movie. Most of the stars are unfamiliar to audiences today and you must suspend your belief in this being a true story of Jerome Kern and just enjoy the music and dance. Great Judy Garland sequences and great color. Unfortunately, the movie's copyright has lapsed and you can only get inferior versions on DVD. Occasionally, TCM will show this film with a good print. Jerome Kern, by his own admission, was not very exciting, so having Robert Walker play him didn't harm the man's reputation. Good job by Van Heflin. The worst performance has to be the woman who plays Kern's wife. All musical numbers are well done and great entertainment. I recommend this for anyone who wants to see an old 40's musical, keeping in mind what audiences in those days liked and expected.