Deep in My Heart

Plot synopsis:
In Boston in the early 1960s, Geraldine Cummins was walking home alone from the movies when she was jumped and raped by a black man. Stunned, she returned home to her husband Bob, stating she had been raped. Sometime later, she finds she is pregnant. In the beginning she hates the thought of her unborn baby, not wanting a constant reminder of her rapist, but keeps it for a few reasons: she is Catholic and she harbors a small hope that it could be her husband's baby. Her husband is supportive during the pregnancy. As the months pass, Gerry comes to be attached to the baby, later stating "8 months is too long to close your heart to a piece of yourself." She becomes fearful of what will happen if her baby is black, the social isolation it would receive and what people would think of her. After going into labor and confiding in a doctor her situation, she becomes convinced that it would be best if she gave it up. The baby is a black girl. She names her newborn daughter Barbara Anne Cummins and gives her to foster mother Corrine Burrel, a black woman in Roxbury, a black neighborhood. Gerry is heartbroken to give up her daughter.
Seven years later, Barbara is a happy little girl, but wonders about her birth parents. Corrine assures her that she is her mother, though not her birth mother. A few months later, a social worker comes into their home and informs Corrine that Barbara will be adopted by white people living in Wisconsin. Corrine seeks legal action, looking to adopt Barbara for herself, but as she is divorced with no job and many children, she is turned down. Barbara is taken kicking from Corrine and the family she has come to know. Later, Corrine reports that the social worker sent her a letter saying that Barbara was happy, but Corrine knew that they emotionally "killed" Barbara when they took her.
Annalise's husband Paul is not very happy to be adopting a colored  7 1⁄2-year-old, but Annalise is thrilled. After a while, Annalise becomes worried about Barbara's very detached nature and suggests to Paul they move to a suburban neighborhood where Barbara could be around other black kids. Paul is angry that they have to change everything for a child he did not want, but agrees, only to leave them after moving. Annalise opts to go to work during the day and to school at night to support them. Barbara has once again receded into herself after the neighborhood children make fun of her for being black with a white mother, calling her 'Oreo' and 'nigger'. Over the years until she is 16, she is alone without her mother or friends. At 16 she meets Don, a football playing choirboy. She falls in love with him and ultimately gets pregnant. Annalise comes home one day to learn that Barbara has a boyfriend and has been in the house alone with her when she was not there. After a mild argument, Barbara leaves. Barbara does not come home that night and Annalise calls the school. She is told her daughter is 4 months pregnant. Barbara then moves in with Don's sister.
Years later, in the middle of Barbara's third pregnancy, the doctor suggests she look into her birth family history for medical reasons. This leads her in search for her mother. She visits Corrine and later contacts the agency in charge of her adoption. By reading her adoption records, she comes to know the truth about her birth and her biological mother. Barbara is emotionally conflicted; whether to believe her father's a rapist or her mother's a liar. Barbara now has 5 children and has been married to Don for 17 years but still displays sadness over her lack of knowledge regarding her family history. After a night of contemplation, she decides to seek out her birth mother. Geraldine's husband Bob has died and her own children have left home, so she now lives alone. Barbara finds her though marriage records and contacts Geraldine's twin brother, Gerald. She reveals that she is looking for her mother and leaves her name and number for him to relay to Geraldine. However, because the call came as he was walking out the door to go on vacation, he is unable to relay the message to his sister, Geraldine until he gets back. She tells her brother that the woman who called is her daughter. At first he is shocked and disappointed that she could just give up her own child like that (she had told her family that Barbara had died as a newborn), but she explains she was raped by a black man. He warns her that everyone will know she was raped by admitting Barbara is her daughter, but Gerry says she does not care. Gerald gives her his blessing. Gerry calls Barbara and tearfully/happily admits to be her mother.
Revitalized by the happiness of knowing she was wanted by both her birth mother and foster mother, Barbara reconciles with Annalise. Anxiously, Gerry and her 3 grown children wait at the airport for Barbara's arrival. Then finally, after 34 years, mother and daughter meet. After a nice dinner with her new-found family, Gerry and Barbara have a bit of a tense conversation about Barbara's paternity. Barbara reveals she hates her father, but Gerry replies that she forgave him the minute she saw Barbara. She also says that the day she gave her up was the worst day of her life. Barbara is angry as to why Gerry gave her up if she loves her, asking if it would have made a difference if she had been born white. Gerry shamefully replies that she probably would have, because she was afraid every time she looked at her she'd see her rapist. But now, she only sees her daughter. Gerry says she only wanted the best for Barbara, to be with people who could teach her courage, which she could not, because Gerry felt ashamed for being raped and having a black daughter, though she loved her. Gerry apologizes to Barbara and the two reconcile as mother and daughter. Later, at a family reunion, Corrine, Gerry and Annalise meet again for the first time. The film ends with a picture of the entire side of Barbara's family, her mothers, her uncles, her brothers and sisters, her children, and her nieces and nephews, black and white together, and Barbara no longer feels like one person alone without a family.

Tags: romantic

Review:
She was crushing on Sigmund big time, but Ferrer only had eyes for Doe Avedon who played his beloved Lillian Harris.Operetta plots are so silly that productions are hardly ever done today.
Criticism of such work as Maytime, Student Prince, Desert Song and New Moon rightly belong in those films, but speaking as someone who likes good melodies, Sigmund Romberg certainly composed them in abundance.
A particular favorite here is Tony Martin singing Lover Come Back to Me from the New Moon.One of the reasons that this film came out in 1954 was also because Romberg had a posthumous hit running on Broadway at the time.
MGM took advantage of her small screen popularity by casting her in Deep In My Heart.Don't expect the life of Sigmund Romberg here, but be prepared for a great melodic treat..
Like most of MGM's alleged composer biographies, it distorts the details of the composer's actual life (in this case Broadway operetta composer Sigmund Romberg), but hangs all of his magnificent songs on an all-star coat rack.
And there lies the attraction: seeing Gene Kelly in his only on-screen appearance with real life brother Fred; Jose Ferrer performing with real life bride Rosemary Clooney (in all of her stunning beauty); and his friend and business compatriot Helen Traubel trilling away-- most effective in the beautiful and uncluttered "Softly" and the lush "Aufwiedersen" for the ears of a dying Merle Oberon (was librettist Oberon supposed to have a crush on composer Ferrer?).
Also choice is Ann Miller's Charleston tap dancing (and she looked great in that red dress); and super-babe Cyd Charisse in an 'Arabian Nights' ballet with James Mitchell (maybe the single most erotic dance performed on film): "One Alone--" in an incredibly sexy, nearly all-lace gown..
Jose Ferrer does an admirable job of portraying the composer Sigmund Romberg, and an all-star cast performs some of Romberg's tunes.Especially noteworthy is Rosemary Clooney, singing, most appropriately, the song "Mr. and Mrs." with her then-husband, Ferrer.
"Deep in My Heart" was their only on-screen performance together.Other memorable moments feature brothers Fred and Gene Kelly dancing and Ferrer performing a one-man show.
Deep in my Heart deserves to be seen.The songs are still highly enjoyable, and Donen, Spigelglass, Ferrer and the rest of the cast gave their best to the film..
This is too bad, because it contains some wonderful musical numbers: Cyd Charisse at her most spectacular in a number from THE DESERT SONG, Gene Kelly and his brother Fred as song-and-dance men, Jose Ferrer doing a surprising one-man-show routine that is astonishing, as well as a charming song and dance with opera star Helen Traubel.
We don't watch musicals looking for high brow entertainment, but when we find one that has a story line, the numbers are brilliantly staged with beautiful costumes, then we have a winner, as it's the case with "Deep in my Heart".Siegmund Romberg was one of the most beloved composers working on the Broadway stages at the beginning of the last century.
His collaboration with Dorothy Donnelly produced a string of winning musicals that helped establish his reputation as one of the best musicians working in America.Of course, this is a film that, by today's standards, would be considered politically incorrect.
Like the great American composers of the early 20th century, Mr. Romberg drew upon his European roots and the popular culture of the times he encountered in his adopted country.One of the best cinema actors of the time, Jose Ferrer, plays the title role.
Doe Avedon is Lillian, the woman who stole Romberg's heart.One of the benefits of having made the movie at MGM is the added bonus of seeing stars of the magnitude of Gene and Fred Kelly, Ann Miller, Rosemary Clooney, Cyd Charise, Tony Martin, Jane Powell, Howard Keel, Russ Tamblyn, Vic Damone interpreting the best Romberg's songs as part of whatever musical he was working at the time.A movie to treasure..
Romberg was a Central European Jew who came to the U.S.A. as a refugee from the pre-first world war Hapsburg Empire; and made a very successful career as a much admired composer of light music, much of which was coupled with romantic songs written by Dorothy Donnolley for Broadway musicals.
Romberg is remembered for writing light Viennese style romantic orchestral music which was extremely popular in the pre-jazz era, and I was surprised how enjoyable this music made watching the film.
For me, and probably others of my generation, the music in more recent musicals does not often compare with that in this film.One of Romberg's best known stage works was 'The Desert Song', which has been filmed three times, (the 1929 version containing more of Romberg's music), and watching an Arabian Nights sequence featuring Cyd Charise and James Mitchell made me very sad that all colour copies of the 1929 film appear to have been lost (although a monochrome version prepared for TV has survived.) The background notes above may be helpful to the many people today who have never heard any of Romberg's music, but as a review of this film the following (which alone would not have satisfied the IMDb 10 line minimum criterion) is all that is needed: This is a perfect film to watch with a life partner, or significant other, at the start of a short vacation together.
The Life and Great Music of Viennese-American composer Sigmund Romberg.
Jose Ferrer, though not a favorite of mine, is a really great actor and he gives a tour de force when he performs his entire show, playing all the parts, in front of the woman he loves and her disapproving mother.
Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Ann Miller and Vic Damone all add their talents and are exceptionally appealing.
Helen Traubel sings quite a lot of songs in this film, but her voice is excellent, despite the rather simple role of restaurant owner-friend-singer.Also nice, is seeing some actors who are still with us in character roles such as Robert Easton, Russ Tamblyn, and I do believe I detected a very young Robert Wagner as the "football player" in the Artists and Models stage scene, as an extra.In all, this is an excellent film of the period, with very cute humor, and helps educate fully about Romberg's music..
"Deep in My Heart" is a 1954 MGM musical starring Jose Ferrer.
It purports to tell the story of Sigmund Romberg, and while much I'm sure is left out, the film is filled with not only great music, but great singing.Well directed by Stanley Donen, the movie shows us Romberg trying to fit in with the musical comedy style, but really having a talent with a more classical, operetta-like bend.Not only is the music beautiful, but it is exquisitely sung by some of the best singers of that era.
My favorite song, "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" from "New Moon" is initially sung by the great Wagnerian opera star, Helen Traubel.
MGM pulled out all the stops, with Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller taking part in "One Alone" and "It" respectively; Vic Damone is on hand for a well-sung "The Road to Paradise," and he's joined by Jane Powell for "Will You Remember" from "Maytime," which in the beginning of the film is the operetta Romberg keeps insisting he wants to do.Gene Kelly and his brother Fred Kelly sing and dance to "I Love to Go Swimmin' with Wimmin" - you an see from the titles that Romberg had a versatility.
Howard Keel a strong "Your Land and My Land." The song "Mr. and Mrs." is performed by real-life Mr. and Mrs. Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney.
One number after another, a fine film for a music lover.The cast is interesting - Merle Oberon as Romberg's writing partner Dorothy Donnelly, Walter Pidgeon is Shubert, Paul Henried is Flo Ziegfeld, and Dorothy Avedon, who died some months ago, is Romberg's beloved wife Lillian.All in all, a feast for the ears and eyes, with Ferrer doing a beautiful, energetic job as Romberg, even at one point performing an entire musical at full speed by himself.
Deep in My Heart is a wonderful biography of the life and music of Sigmund Romberg.
The film is very well acted by Jose Ferrer, Merle Oberon, and opera star Helen Traubel.The star-studded music numbers are a must see for any fan of the great MGM musicals.
Selections include a dance sequence with Gene Kelly and his brother Fred Kelly, "Maytime" with Vic Damone and Jane Powell, dance sequences with the incredible talents of Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller, Tony Martin singing "New Moon", and a host of other stars in performing in grand style.
The production values are splendid and by far the best scenes are the most erotic Desert Song sequence with Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell and the very funny Anne Miller scene from Artists and Models recycling all the Singin In the Rain clothes..
Besides the married (at the time) duo of Ferrer and Clooney, the film also had the still-married duo of Charisse and Martin, although in different acts.
This biopic covers a substantial portion of his life, pausing to present musical numbers from his shows from his earliest success ("Maytime") to his work with Oscar Hammerstein.Jose Ferrer portrays Romberg with a light hand.
Nevertheless, as a collection of set designs, use of Technicolor, musical performances, gorgeous (and talented) females in stunning costumes, and star turns for otherwise "serious" actors like Jose Ferrer, DiMH is both visually and aurally mindblowing to any student of the development of film-making.
In fact, for me, a close second best to 1950's 'Three Little Words', which just gets the edge for having a little more energy pace-wise and never giving the impression that it should have been shorter.Despite pretty much all of them being heavily fictionalised, with some like 'Till the Clouds Roll By' and 'Words and Music' really coming to life in the musical numbers and losing interest pretty significantly in the biographical sections, all of the 1940s-1950s composer musical biopics (titles being 'Till the Clouds Roll By', 'Rhapsody in Blue', 'Night and Day', 'Words and Music', 'Three Little Words' and this) are worth watching at least once.Based on the life of operetta composer Sigmund Romberg, whose magnificent tunes often paired with librettos that could be silly and thin but with enough elegance and charm, 'Deep in My Heart' is very loose biographically but as a piece of entertainment in its own right it does excel.
It is let down only really by the story dragging pretty badly in the middle section where there's less emphasis on song and more on biography, with the biographical sections despite being nicely written and excellently played lacking the momentum shown when the music/dancing takes centre stage.
At over 2 hours, with parts dragging, it does feel like a long haul at times and did feel like it could have been 15-20 minutes shorter.However, 'Deep in My Heart' is a beautiful-looking film, photographed with elegance and lavishly designed.
The music is magnificent (more on the highlights later), with none of the singers and dancers not doing justice to it, while the script has some cute, witty and sometimes sophisticated humour and also some emotional moments like the very moving Carnegie Hall finale.Jose Ferrer gives a bravura performance in the title role, essential for being the one holding everything together.
A big standout is the Cyd Charisse/James Mitchell dancing in "One Alone", sensuous doesn't describe it, while Ann Miller electrifies in "It" and Jane Powell and Vic Damone make hearts swoon in "Will You Remember".
Helen Traubel also sounds great, and 'Deep in My Heart' offers rare and delightful chances of seeing Ferrer and real life wife Rosemary Clooney together in "Mr and Mrs" and brothers Fred and Gene (yes that Gene) Kelly in "I Love to Go Swimmin with Wimmen".
(There are some differences.)Early on in the movie,*Deep in My Heart*, Romberg acknowledged that his music was not *The Mikado* but that *The Mikado* in turn was not...something else.
The light touch and sense of fun evident in so much of Stanley Donen's musical work is almost entirely missing from this ten-ton biopic of Sigmund Romberg, played diligently but without charm by Jose Ferrer.
Some work out beautifully, though most of these have more to do with dance than Romberg's melodies: a nifty tap production number with Ann Miller, an extremely hot "Desert Song" pas de deux by Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell, a lively comedy routine with Gene Kelly and his brother Fred.
But the best of Romberg is stiffly staged in vignettes featuring a bored-looking Jane Powell and Vic Damone ("Maytime"), William Olvis ("The Student Prince"), and Howard Keel (a very uneasy "My Maryland").
(Personally, I feel Jose Ferrer's "tour de force" one-man presentation at the resort cottage could have been left out.) Running at 132 minutes, it's a long haul.Still, there's the lovely Merle Oberon, silver throated Helen Traubel, and a dozen guest stars in featured production numbers.
It seems to me Mr. Ferrer was at his energetic peak at this time and his exuberance simply needed to be reined in (probably by Director Stanley Donen)."Deep in My Heart" remains a fairly good biopic with great talent, variety, and energy.
A lot of people know that the musicals numbers are more times than not the best thing about the movie.
This film, "Deep in My Heart," is about one composer of serious music who wrote what he called dribble for the masses as a mean to an end, so he could realize his dream of writing his "Maytime" – Sigmund Romberg, as played by Jose Ferrer.
The musical numbers features Rosemary Clooney (Jose's wife in real life), Gene Kelly, and Ann Miller, along with a few other major names.
The numbers that did stand out to me is an energetic number Ann Miller did, Jane Powell and Vic Damone's "Maytime" interlude, and the sensuous dance of Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell.
If you have seen other musicals, biopics or not, then you will see that this film is really not one of the best, despite the talented stars involved..
As Hungarian composer Sigmund Romberg, who made a big splash in New York City in the 1920s writing the music for an array of hit Broadway shows, José Ferrer sings, dances and cuts up like never before, even dropping to one knee for an Al Jolson impression.
He's just about upstaged, anyhow, by a virtual roll call of MGM talent (Ann Miller, Howard Keel, Jane Powell, and Gene Kelly dancing with real-life brother Fred), all appearing in the kind of glorified cameos the studio excelled at during this period.
My title comes from Ferrer's twice burlesquing of the title of one of Sigmund Romberg's most popular musical plays "The Student Prince", the lyrics of which were done by his Irish- American friend Dorothy Donnelly, here played by Merle Oberon, who serves as his quasi-girlfriend in the film, until he meets the woman who will become his second wife: a rather faceless Lillian Harris, played by Doe Avedon.
I was initially attracted to purchase a DVD of this film because it mentioned that Romberg was the composer of "Desert Song".
Other film adaptations of Romberg's works include the 1954 "Student Prince", featuring Mario Lanza'a voice, if not troublesome body, and "Maytime", as well as "New Moon", both starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, back 15-20 years before.
Also, Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote or co-wrote the lyrics for several of Romberg's best known works(including "Desert Song"), wasn't mentioned until nearly Dorothy's death, and was barely included at all in the film.
I did find it rather good, including the derisive song "Fat, Fat, Fatima", lyrics by Ballard McDonald.Turning to the various 'guest' performers: noted ballerina/dancer Tamara Toumanova, as Gabe, sings(dubbed) and dances a bit to "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise", in a very gaudy outfit and set, which Romberg clearly doesn't like.
But Hollywood wasn't giving up on operettas, at least not yet, having just filmed Romberg's "The Desert Song" (for the 4th time, if you include "The Red Shadow, a 1934 short) and "The Student Prince", as well as Rudolph Friml's "Rose Marie".
A glorious opening has the MGM chorus singing the title song after a brief orchestral medley of his songs, and don't be surprised if your spine doesn't tingle a bit when the first close-up on Jose Ferrer comes up.As other musical biographies always start, Sigmund Romberg is a hopeful composer who reluctantly writes jazzy tunes (the delightful "Leg of Mutton") to get his name bandied about by Broadway producers.
It's ironic here that the best numbers are the ones for his operettas, "The Student Prince", "The Desert Song", and "New Moon".
In fact, "It", lively sung and danced by Ann Miller is a little offensive.As far as the storyline goes, the music drops out completely in the middle of the film as Romberg's romance with his future wife Lillian (Doe Averdon) erupts, but fortunately, it's not gone for long.
Supporting Ferrer, along with his wife, are the lovely Merle Oberon as Romberg's lyricist and book writer Dorothy Donnelly and the amazing Helen Traubel as Anna Mueller, his life-long friend who has the voice of an angel, not to mention the heart of gold to go along with it.
This is a decent film and has some really nice numbers by some of the great MGM stars of the day.
My favorite musical number comes from Jane Powell and Vic Damone.
My other favorite has to be the song and dance number by Gene and Fred Kelly.
Or Rosemary Clooney singing and dancing...with her husband Jose Ferrer (star of the film).
Among them are the "cameos" for the musical numbers -- (in addition to those already mentioned) Jane Powell, Vic Damone, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, and Tony Martin.In terms of the acting cast, Jose Ferrer was different enough here that I must reevaluate his talents.