Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersSundance Film FestivalIndependent Spirit AwardsBlack History MonthSXSWSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

The Helen Morgan Story

  • 19571957
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 58m
IMDb RATING
6.3/10
816
YOUR RATING
Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
Official Trailer
Play trailer2:44
1 Video
19 Photos
BiographyDramaMusic
Torch singer Helen Morgan rises from sordid beginnings to fame and fortune only to lose it all to alcohol and poor personal choices.Torch singer Helen Morgan rises from sordid beginnings to fame and fortune only to lose it all to alcohol and poor personal choices.Torch singer Helen Morgan rises from sordid beginnings to fame and fortune only to lose it all to alcohol and poor personal choices.
IMDb RATING
6.3/10
816
YOUR RATING
    • Michael Curtiz
  • Writers
    • Oscar Saul(original screenplay)
    • Dean Riesner(original screenplay)
    • Stephen Longstreet(original screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Ann Blyth
    • Paul Newman
    • Richard Carlson
    • Michael Curtiz
  • Writers
    • Oscar Saul(original screenplay)
    • Dean Riesner(original screenplay)
    • Stephen Longstreet(original screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Ann Blyth
    • Paul Newman
    • Richard Carlson
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 21User reviews
    • 6Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos1

    The Helen Morgan Story
    Trailer 2:44
    Watch The Helen Morgan Story

    Photos19

    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in "The Helen Morgan Story," 1957.
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Paul Newman, Ann Blyth, and Michael Curtiz in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ann Blyth
    Ann Blyth
    • Helen Morgan
    Paul Newman
    Paul Newman
    • Larry Maddux
    Richard Carlson
    Richard Carlson
    • Russell Wade
    Gene Evans
    Gene Evans
    • Whitey Krause
    Alan King
    Alan King
    • Benny Weaver
    Cara Williams
    Cara Williams
    • Dolly Evans
    Virginia Vincent
    Virginia Vincent
    • Sue
    Walter Woolf King
    Walter Woolf King
    • Florenz Ziegfeld
    Dorothy Green
    Dorothy Green
    • Mrs. Wade
    Edward Platt
    Edward Platt
    • Johnny Haggerty
    Warren Douglas
    Warren Douglas
    • Mark Hellinger
    Sammy White
    • Sammy White
    The De Castro Sisters
    • Singers
    Jimmy McHugh
    • Jimmy McHugh
    Rudy Vallee
    Rudy Vallee
    • Rudy Vallee
    Walter Winchell
    Walter Winchell
    • Walter Winchell
    Gogi Grant
    • Helen Morgan (singing voice)
    • (voice)
    Nicky Blair
    Nicky Blair
    • Vendor
    • (scenes deleted)
      • Michael Curtiz
    • Writers
      • Oscar Saul(original screenplay)
      • Dean Riesner(original screenplay)
      • Stephen Longstreet(original screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Until They Sail
    6.5
    Until They Sail
    The Rack
    6.8
    The Rack
    Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!
    5.9
    Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!
    Slaughter on 10th Avenue
    6.7
    Slaughter on 10th Avenue
    The Tarnished Angels
    7.1
    The Tarnished Angels
    23 Paces to Baker Street
    6.9
    23 Paces to Baker Street
    Don't Go Near the Water
    6.1
    Don't Go Near the Water
    Blowing Wild
    6.3
    Blowing Wild
    The File on Thelma Jordon
    6.9
    The File on Thelma Jordon
    The Roots of Heaven
    6.3
    The Roots of Heaven
    Lady L
    5.5
    Lady L
    The Secret War of Harry Frigg
    6.3
    The Secret War of Harry Frigg

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The title role was declined by two actresses who had recently headlined successful biopics of troubled songstresses: Doris Day (Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me (1955)) and Susan Hayward (Lillian Roth in I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)), neither of whom wanted to (in a sense) "recycle" an earlier role.
    • Goofs
      In real life, Helen Morgan married three times. In the film, she never marries.
    • Quotes

      Larry Maddux: Do yourself a favor. Hire the kid.

      Whitey Krause: I hope your hooch is better than your suggestion, Larry. What's the canary to you.

      Larry Maddux: Nuthin'. I'm just a music lover. Besides, I don't go for that sad stuff she sings.

    • Connections
      Featured in The Great Canadian Supercut (2017)
    • Soundtracks
      Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
      Music by Jerome Kern

      Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

      Performed by Ann Blyth (dubbed by Gogi Grant) at the end

      Originally from the musical "Show Boat"

    User reviews21

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    Why was she born?
    Clearly inspired by other biopics like Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), this is another tale of a chanteuse whose career success is affected by booze and bad men. Helen Morgan was a star in the 1920's, a nightclub singer who crossed-over into theater for Flo Ziegfeld on Broadway in Showboat. However like so many others, a rapid ascent gave way to a slow decline.

    The screenplay by Oscar Saul, Dean Reisner, Stephen Longstreet, and Nelson Gidding, rationalises that the sado-masochistic love of Helen (Ann Blyth) for Larry Maddox (Paul Newman) is what brings her success and failure. Her alcoholism is an ironic symptom of the era of prohibition. Helen is ambitious, but her love for Larry tells us that she would give it all up if he would agree to marry her. However as Larry isn't the marrying kind, she is miserable, not a good state for an entertainer to be in. The lower class milieu that accompanies showbusiness is a breeding ground for these crooks, who see talented women as their meal ticket and a way to improve themselves, and it's no coincidence that Ruth Etting and Fanny Brice too had their troubles with gamblers. When Larry slaps Helen repeatedly and calls her a tramp, the scene could be from any number of biopics.

    The dialogue uses period slang for amusing affect eg 'You made those dames look like they were hanging out to dry', Larry is 'stuck on' Helen and tells her 'You're hooked'. When Helen is drunk at a rehearsal, it is said of her 'She's only running on 4 cylinders. It's the gasoline she uses'. The narrative has period oddities such as a lesbian at a rent party, and the wife of lawyer Russell Wade (Richard Carlson) who has an arrangement where it appears she too can be a lesbian, though she refuses to release her meal ticket. Helen gets the standard self-pity in 'I'm no good' and 'Everything I touch turns bad', and we hear the tale of the death of her father when she was a child (Freud, anyone?). However what no one seems to notice is that when Helen is appearing in Showboat and at her nightclub AND drinking, the plain fact seems to be is that she is overworked. Also when Ziegfeld offers her the part of Julie in Showboat that would make her famous, there is no indication that she can even act.

    Although the biopic is one of Hollywood's most corrupt genres - revisionist history existing as a star vehicle - it is redeemed when the person biographed is presented as a star. Although Ann Blyth can sing, her vocals are (inexplicably) dubbed, not with Morgan's recordings - Morgan died in 1941 - but by Gogi Grant. Grant's voice is lovely, has that Garland loudness and heartthrob sincerity for ballads, and is also able to jazz it up for 'On The Sunny Side of the Street'. Director Michael Curtiz only lets us see Helen as a star in two numbers - 'The Man I Love', and Why Was I Born?', both when she is supposedly drunk and of course, in perfect voice. Curtiz uses the genre standard cut-aways so we have others opinion of how wonderful Helen is, but otherwise we get Helen singing numbers interrupted or up-staged by drama. There are two other numbers which Helen completes in full - her two songs from Showboat performed in non-Showboat settings, Bill and Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, but the songs are less showy.

    Blyth uses Morgan's signature scarf and sits on the accompaniest's piano as she sings, however often her buck teeth up-stage her. Blyth had been memorably directed by Curtiz in Mildred Pierce (1944) with Joan Crawford, and the later Helen recalls Crawford, in her stark make-up and, in a scene where she is required to tell a lie, where her face is a grimace. Curtiz uses expressionist camera-work to indicate Helen's drunken point of view, and the numbers she falters in when performing are camp - her tipsy rehearsal for 'Somebody Loves Me' wearing a hideous dress, and 'You Do Something to Me' where she falls off the piano. Curtiz cuts from her fall to a newspaper headline 'La Morgan stops Broadway show - flat on her face!'. When Helen is 'missing' on a drunken binge, she gets splashed by a passing car, and is ridiculed in a bar when she sings along to a radio broadcast of her own vocal. However, Blyth's screams of Helen in detox jump over camp into empathy.

    Curtiz uses the cringe-worthy orchestration of Morgan songs behind dialogue scenes - you can bet 'The Man I Love' gets a workout in the Helen/Larry scenes, but also the silhouette of someone who hangs themselves. Newman is too young for his role - he was actually older than Blyth when the film was made, but he seems younger - and his technique shows. But although he has practically nothing to do, Alan King is good to have around.
    helpful•27
    4
    • petershelleyau
    • Nov 25, 2002

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 5, 1957 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Warner Bros.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 1 hour 58 minutes
      • Black and White

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Paul Newman and Ann Blyth in The Helen Morgan Story (1957)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Helen Morgan Story (1957) officially released in Canada in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.