Till the Clouds Roll By (1946): watch the full film free, legally

Jerome Kern looks back from Show Boat

Till the Clouds Roll By is a 1946 American Technicolor musical from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a fictionalized biopic of composer Jerome Kern. Robert Walker plays Kern. It was the first in a series of MGM biopics about Broadway composers, using Kern’s songs to trace a version of his life and theatrical career.

The story opens on the 1927 opening night of Show Boat, the musical that secured Kern’s popularity. After several songs, Kern leaves and recalls his early years. He remembers meeting musical mentor Jim Hessler and Jim’s daughter Sally, then visiting them in London. A trip to a fair with Sally inspires an idea for a stage production. At the London Gaieties revue, producer Charles Frohman notices one of Kern’s songs.

Kern meets Eva Leale and falls in love at first sight, but must return to New York to adapt The Girl from Utah for Broadway. After its success, he narrowly misses sailing back to London aboard the RMS Lusitania. The film includes the 1917 opening of Oh, Boy!, with the title song, and follows Kern through Leave It to Jane and the 1920 musical Sally, whose star Marilyn Miller popularizes “Look for the Silver Lining.”

When the grown Sally Hessler asks Uncle Jerry for a stage role, he writes “Who?” for Sunny. The producers give it to Marilyn Miller instead, and Sally leaves in protest. At the opening, Kern learns she has run away, leaving Jim despondent. Oscar Hammerstein later brings the Kerns a copy of the 1926 novel Show Boat.

Performers in Kern’s theatrical world

Walker leads a cast combining fictionalized characters, historical figures, and performers appearing as themselves. Lucille Bremer plays the fictional Sally Hessler, while Van Heflin plays Kern’s fictional mentor, James I. Hessler. Dorothy Patrick is Eva Kern, née Leale. Harry Hayden plays Charles Frohman, Paul Langton plays Oscar Hammerstein II, and Paul Maxey plays Victor Herbert.

Judy Garland appears as Marilyn Miller. June Allyson plays herself and Jane in Leave It to Jane. Kathryn Grayson appears as Magnolia Hawks in Show Boat and as herself, while Lena Horne plays Julie LaVerne in Show Boat and herself. Tony Martin is Gaylord Ravenal in Show Boat and himself, and Virginia O’Brien plays Ellie Mae in Show Boat and herself. Frank Sinatra appears as himself.

Angela Lansbury plays a London specialty performer, and Ray McDonald performs dance specialties in Oh, Boy! and Leave It to Jane. Gower Champion and Cyd Charisse have specialty dance roles in Roberta. Esther Williams makes a cameo, while Sally Forrest and Mary Hatcher appear as chorus girls. Grayson later reprised Magnolia Hawks in MGM’s 1951 adaptation of Show Boat.

A production marked by director changes

The working title was As the Clouds Roll By. Gene Kelly was intended to play Kern, with Gloria DeHaven, Jacqueline White, Imogen Carpenter, and Jeanette MacDonald in major parts. None appeared in the completed film. Kern participated in the production, returned to New York toward the end of October 1945, and died in November, before completion.

Several directors were involved during the six-month shoot. Set designer Lemuel Ayers had been scheduled to make his directing debut, but Busby Berkeley replaced him in late August 1945. Vincente Minnelli shot Garland’s sequences before principal photography because she was pregnant and expected to give birth in March 1946. Her work was completed on November 8, 1945. Berkeley was replaced by Henry Koster, who was soon replaced by Richard Whorf. Whorf received the onscreen directing credit. Production paused from some time in January 1946 until the middle of March.

The film includes two versions of “Ol’ Man River,” one by Caleb Peterson and an African-American chorus in the Show Boat medley, and one by Sinatra. Barbette consulted on the circus sequence. MGM Records released a soundtrack concurrently with the film, first as four 78-rpm records with cover art by Lennie Hayton, then on LP.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times criticized its “thoroughly phoney yarn” and called its treatment hackneyed and sentimental. Variety opened its satisfactory notice by asking, “Why quibble about the story?” The film earned $4,748,000 in the United States and Canada and $1,976,000 elsewhere, with a profit of $732,000. In 2006, it was nominated for AFI’s Greatest Movie Musicals.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Till the Clouds Roll By”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.