Till The Clouds Roll By (1946)

Till The Clouds Roll By is a 1946 American musical film made by MGM. The film is a fictionalized biography of composer Jerome Kern (portrayed by Robert Walker (actor)) who was originally involved with the production of the film, but died before it was completed.
Production
Till the Clouds Roll By contained a large cast of well-known musical stars of the day who appear in cameo roles performing Kern's songs. The first 15 minutes of the film consist of a condensed adaptation of Act I of Show Boat, with the order of some of the songs shifted - "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" is sung after "Life upon the Wicked Stage", and "Ol' Man River" was used as an Act I Finale, dissimilar to the show. "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" as sung by Lena Horne was filmed, like many of her other musical numbers in MGM films, so that it could be easily eliminated by sensitive Southern distributors.
Perhaps to appeal directly to teen audiences of the day, the film included two versions of "Ol' Man River" - the first a straightforward version sung by African-American actor-singer Caleb Peterson and a black chorus as part of the "Show Boat" medley, and the second a "crooner version" performed by Frank Sinatra (then wildly popular with Bobby soxers), featured as the film's grand finale.
When the film started production in the fall of 1945, Judy Garland was signed as Broadway singer-dancer Marilyn Miller. Garland, who had just returned to California after a long New York honeymoon with her new husband, director Vincente Minnelli, had just discovered that she was pregnant. MGM decided that all of Garland's scenes and musical numbers would be directed, supervised, and completed by Minnelli as soon as possible. During this time, Jerome Kern regularly visited the set and was photographed with Minnelli and Garland while they were filming the musical number Who? (song). Soon after, Kern returned to New York towards the end of October and died in November, 1945. Garland's work on the film was finished by December, 1945.
Famed circus performer Barbette (performer) consulted on the creation of the film's circus sequence.<></>
Upon its release in December, 1946, Till The Clouds Roll By received mixed reviews, but was a huge box-office success.
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Till the Clouds Roll By is one of several MGM musicals (another being Royal Wedding) that List of films in the public domain in the United States on their 29th anniversary due to failure to renew the copyright registration.<></> As such, it is one of the most widely circulated MGM musicals on home video. Warner Home Video gave the film its first fully restored DVD release on April 25, 2006.
Till the Clouds Roll By is also credited as one of the first motion pictures to have a soundtrack album released concurrent with the film arriving in theaters. The soundtrack was produced by MGM Records. The album originally contained four 78-rpm records featuring various artists and songs from the movie and front-cover artwork by Lennie Hayton. Later this album was released on LP album. No official authorized version has yet been released on CD, but several unauthorized versions have (Rhino Entertainment currently owns the rights to issue an authorized CD of the soundtrack, under license from Turner Entertainment; in the past, MCA Records and Sony Music Entertainment held such rights). This is due to MGM allowing the film to fall into public domain.
Cast

June Allyson as Jane Witherspoon (in Leave It to Jane) and Lou Ellen Carter (in Oh, Boy! (musical))
Lucille Bremer as Sally Hessler
Judy Garland as Marilyn Miller
Kathryn Grayson as Magnolia Hawks in Show Boat / Specialty
Van Heflin as James I. Hessler
Lena Horne as Julie LaVerne in Show Boat / Specialty
Van Johnson as Bandleader in Elite Club
Tony Martin (entertainer) as Gaylord Ravenal in Show Boat / Specialty
Dinah Shore as Una Trance (in The Girl from Utah) / Specialty
Frank Sinatra as Finale Specialty

Robert Walker (actor) as Jerome Kern
Gower Champion as Specialty Dancer in Roberta
Cyd Charisse as Specialty Dancer in Roberta
Angela Lansbury as London Specialty, singing "How'd Ya Like to Spoon With Me"
Ray McDonald as Specialty in Oh, Boy! and Leave It to Jane
Virginia O'Brien as Ellie Mae in Show Boat / Specialty
Joan Wells as Sally Hessler as a little girl
Esther Williams as Cameo appearance
Harry Hayden as Charles Frohman
Paul Langton as Oscar Hammerstein II
Paul Maxey as Victor Herbert

From publicdomainmovies.net