As can easily be told, Music in My Heart is one of those all-purpose generic screenplays somebody yanked out of a drawer, the kind that might have already have been made once or twice but nobody remembered. The film really is dressed up to appeal to Louis B. Mayer; it has Andre Kostelanitz as a radio performer (common casting for the time) and presents 'swing' versions of standards and classical music for hep appeal, such as it is. Martin and Hayworth meet cute after climbing out of overturned taxis and everything else is agreeable nonsense, none of it particularly inspired. Tony sings to an organ grinder's monkey. Rita's little sister Mary (Edith Fellows) connives to get them into the romantic mood. The nasty butler Griggs is a sneak but his snooty boss (Mowbray, the Shakespearean troubador from My Darling Clementine) turns out to be a good egg.

As I said before, Martin isn't half bad, but there's not all that much to distinguish him. The part plays like something invented for a tenor tired of singing opposite Jeanette MacDonald. He's forced to wear a Ruritanian costume for several reels while his own clothes are shipped overseas without him. Perhaps it's not Martin's fault, but Music in My Heart isn't the starmaking vehicle he was hoping for.

Rita seems to be in the bush league tryouts too, perhaps purposely laying off the fancy dance steps that relegated her to exotic garnish status in pictures like Dante's Inferno. This is before her 40s makeover, with the old hairline and makeup structure detailed in the good Playboy career biography Rita. Hayworth already flashes her smile with assurance, and has all that's needed to stop the heart of any hetero male. It is true, however, that her dancing is often the highlight of her films and we miss it here. All we get are a few steps around the kitchen table, just some non-choreographed vamping (if that's the right term).

Support is as standard as standard gets, and the five or six songs are pretty forgettable. Music in My Heart is for Hayworth addicts with a yen to grab every piece of celluloid available on the actress.

Columbia TriStar's DVD of Music in My Heart looks and sounds great, which must point up the difference between the studio's overprinted Capra films and items like this one that haven't been off the shelf in 50 years. The so-so photography looks fine, and Andre Kostelanetz' orchestra is well-recorded.

Trailers? Bios? Time of day? This is Columbia, pilgrim. But it's a good plainwrap disc.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Music in My Heart rates:
Movie: Good -
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: none
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: September 15, 2004