Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story - on TCM

Ann Blyth stars as torch singer Helen Morgan in The Helen Morgan Story (1957), her last motion picture.  Director Michael Curtiz, with whom she worked in Mildred Pierce (1945), chose her among several other actresses for her stunning audition, and she enjoyed working with him again, despite the controversy of the studio's decision that her singing voice would be dubbed.  Her sensitive portrayal of the troubled Jazz Age star is the highlight of the film.  From my book Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.:

At the time he was writing his column in New York, when Helen Morgan was starring at the Ziegfeld Theater on Sixth Avenue and 54^th Street (long since torn down) in Hammerstein and Kern’s colossal hit Show Boat (Edna May Oliver played the role of the overbearing Parthy), Ann Blyth was a baby on the other side of town, in a considerably lower rent district, an area along East 31^st Street.  In twelve years Ann would be on Broadway herself while still a child, and in fifteen she’d be in Hollywood, where she got to know Mark Hellinger when she appeared in his productions of Swell Guy (1946), and Brute Force (1947).  Hellinger would say of Ann:

Outside, she’s as untouched as a convent girl—and inside, she’s as wise as a woman of 50.

Perhaps one could say the opposite about Helen Morgan.

You have a chance to watch The Helen Morgan Story today on Turner Classic Movies, 11:30 a.m. ET.

Brute Force - Ann Blyth and Burt Lancaster

Ann Blyth and Burt Lancaster in a publicity photo for Brute Force (1947).  They were cast together for the only time, but producer Mark Hellinger apparently voiced plans to create a new movie romantic team.  From my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.:

Producer Mark Hellinger may have had yet another reason for putting Ann Blyth and Burt Lancaster together.  He had hired her for Swell Guy (1947), and him for The Killers (1946).  They were two of Universal’s most talented up and coming stars, and he may have wanted to turn them into a team.  According to syndicated gossip columnist Dorothy Manners who wrote this in May 1946:

Mark Hellinger, always good for a bright idea, said to me, “Where are those swell romantic teams that used to make the fans goggle-eyed over their love scenes…It’s time the love team is revived on screen,” and Mark is the boy who is going to do it with his two young stars, Ann Blyth and Burt Lancaster…he wants to make three or four with Ann and Burt....

Their romantic team never did materialize.  Both went on to other films, and Mark Hellinger, who might have made a pet project of bringing them together again on screen, tragically died about six months after Brute Force was released.   


Brute Force will be shown on Turner Classic Movies this coming Monday, December 4th, at 6:15 p.m. ET.