Helen Morgan Story (2008)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jim H

  
  The biopic of a woman who, despite her connections with the wrong men and the tumult of the roaring twenties, rises to showbiz prominence. I don't know anything about the real Helen Morgan, so the comparisons between the film and actual events are lost on me. If there are… More
  The biopic of a woman who, despite her connections with the wrong men and the tumult of the roaring twenties, rises to showbiz prominence. I don't know anything about the real Helen Morgan, so the comparisons between the film and actual events are lost on me. If there are inaccuracies, they should've elected to make the story more interesting. As it is, the rise to fame is rather basic, and the film's chronicle of Morgan's rise is uneven. As a film, the story is interrupted by musical numbers that only occasionally reflect the action that we're supposed to be most concerned with. Also, Ann Blyth and Paul Newman have almost no chemistry, which is odd considering the fact that Newman made a career out of leveraging his irresistible charm. When Newman's character says that he's "stuck on her" and when Morgan sings love songs in his general direction, I can't understand why or what motivated their romance. Overall, if you like the music of the roaring twenties, those beginnings of jazz, then you'll love the soundtrack, but try to ignore the attempts at a story interrupting the songs.

• jay n

  
  Mostly fictional biographical hogwash of hard luck dame Morgan. Ann Blyth was the wrong actress for the title role, many were considered she was probably the least suitable, so the film starts off with a major flaw from the get go. Another shortcoming is that although Blyth was a… More
  Mostly fictional biographical hogwash of hard luck dame Morgan. Ann Blyth was the wrong actress for the title role, many were considered she was probably the least suitable, so the film starts off with a major flaw from the get go. Another shortcoming is that although Blyth was a singer whose voice was relatively close to the real Helen Morgan's she is dubbed by Gogi Grant, also a fine singer but completely different from Morgan in sound and technique. If they were going to dub her why not use Helen Morgan's voice? The real Morgan story is a compelling one so this comes off as a wasted oppurtunity.