Is Mickey Borden based on Oscar Levant?
I'm reading A Talent for Genius, the biography of Oscar Levant. It quotes an interview with Garfield by Hedda Hopper in which she said, "I saw your performance and thought, there's Oscar Levant." Garfield agreed and said it was a deliberate choice on his part. Later the two men worked together on Humoresque, in which Levant played his usual sidekick role, and played the hell out of the piano.
I haven't seen it however, and hope Turner Classics shows it cuz I'm tired of trying to track these things down on DVD.