Fine movie about a man with a mountain of musical talent.
I came across this movie on the TV network "Movies!".If we look through recorded history at people who stand out and the contributions they made, in music John Philip Sousa has to come up on any list. He was a multi-talented musician who ended up in the Marines, and became the leader of the Marine Corps Band. It became the official band for 5 different US Presidents. He wrote most of the best and most famous marches, and even had a new instrument built, the Sousaphone, a bass with a particular design that allowed it to be played bell-forward, and adapted to marching bands.
Clifton Webb is simply great as John Philip Sousa. After achieving great success while still in the military he chose to get discharged. Ask why by his superiors his answer was simple and logical, he could not support his large family with 5 children on his military salary.
When he struck out on his own he picked only the finest musicians, each one up musically to the same standards Sousa held for himself. There is a funny scene where a trumpet player is auditioning. Sousa took the cornet and played a fast and complicated piece (Variations on Carnival of Venice) to show what he was expecting and the other guy just took his horn and walked away. I am a trumpet player, in high school, college, and community bands as an adult, we played all of the Sousa marches, that scene struck a particular chord with me. Though I would not, even in my prime, have been good enough to play with his band.
Robert Wagner was barely past 20, a young soldier named Willie Little who desperately wanted to play with Sousa's band. In one scene he shows up at Sousa's home with the instrument that came to be known as the Sousaphone, and young Willie named it that in honor of the man. But that is a fabrication for the movie, the Sousaphone was in fact a creation of Sousa himself, he gave instructions for its fabrication to an instrument builder.
The young love interest was provided by Debra Paget, still in her teens, as Lily Becker, a stage performer who wanted her own career. I had forgotten how pretty and delightful Paget was, and she and Wagner are both in good form here.
All in all a fine, entertaining movie covering a key part of the great bandsman's life and accomplishments. Plus it is filled with famous Sousa marches.
score /10
TxMike 4 July 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3044650/35196
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