MovieChat Forums > Till the Clouds Roll By (1947) Discussion > Question about the Hesslers

Question about the Hesslers

posted 17 years ago by BlueGreen
5 replies | jump to latest

As I am sure we've all read, the song-writer Hessler and his daughter are supposedly ficticious characters - not even "based on...", but invented from scratch. At least that's what I've been hearing/reading all these years.

But if that is so, isn't it rather awkward (to put it mildly) and unnecessary to have Kern say (to the taxi driver, towards the end) that "Hessler" would always be a part of his <Kern's> music?

And let's not even mention the entire Sally saga, which is presented as much more than a mere subplot here.

I realise that Kern supposedly described his real life as lacking in drama, so they spiced it up (as I am sure they would have done anyway). But still... these are HUGE "additions"!

Does anyone know more about this? Was really ALL of it just an invention?

[–] standardmetal 16 years ago

As far as I could tell, the Hessler saga was made up out of whole cloth. I agree with you and think this was unconscionable but that's how Hollywood treated composers at that time.

[–] BlueGreen 16 years ago

Thank you, Standardmetal.
It surely is a strange, strange attitude... They didn't seem to hold the viewers' intelligence in very high regard, did they...?

[–] standardmetal 16 years ago

Blue-Green,

Do look at my revised review since I read a biography of the real Jerome Kern:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039035/usercomments-31

There were many composers' biopics at this time and they were all essentially put through the same old Hollywood meat grinder. In this film, much of the writing was done by Guy Bolton who was a friend and frequent collaborator of Kern's and was probably protective of Jerry's reputation.

In creating the fictional James Hessler, Kern got a mentor and seemed much less the egomaniac he was in actuality. And, of course, Robert Walker was also much better-looking in the film than Kern was in real life.

But the vocal talent could not now be improved upon (Frank, Dinah and Judy are now long gone and Angela, Lena and Tony are ancient! Tony Martin still performs at 95, but probably shouldn't!).

So you have to take the good with the not-so-good, I think.

Ed

[–] paleolith 14 years ago

Yes, as "Ed" posted, the story line (such as it is) is mostly fictional. I own a biography of Kern, and the name "Hessler" does not appear. Kern's wife Eva was British, but the circumstances of their meeting do not resemble the movie. It's probably true that Kern just missed sailing on the Lusitania, but for totally different reasons (Frohman planned the trip for both of them, and Kern overslept).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039035/usercomments-14

They may not have thought the audience was stupid, but they certainly assumed (right or wrong) that the audience wasn't interested in learning about the real Jerome Kern. You'll have to read the book if you're interested.

Edward

[–] dmnemaine 13 years ago

Films of this nature were not about truth or reality. They were about the music of a specific composer, lyricist, singer, bandleader, etc. The plots were not important at all. What was important was having a lot of movie stars singing a lot of standards in lavish production numbers. That was what the audience expected and what they got. Another variation on this kind of film was the film that wasn't about someone's life, but about their song catalogue -- "Easter Parade" (Ivring Berlin), "An American In Paris" (Gershwin), "Singin' In The Rain" (Freed and Brown), "The Band Wagon" (Dietz & Schwartz), etc.