I'm in no position to comment on your assessment of Duchin's playing abilities, either on their own or relative to Cavallaro's, since to my knowledge I've never heard a recording of Duchin and only know Cavallaro from what's heard in this film. I can however make two observations:
One, every review of the film, both in 1956 and since, states that Cavallaro played the music in a style very similar to Duchin's. Not an outright imitation, but close to Duchin's technique. In fact, this point was frequently emphasized. Now, obviously each man had his own style that can't be completely eviscerated or imitated, but your statement that Cavallaro played in his own style because he couldn't bring himself "down" to Duchin's is not supported by any review or comment I've run across. This clearly seems to be your personal opinion, and while you may be right, it runs counter to every comment or review I've read of the film and its music.
Two, I can only say that claiming a pianist like Duchin got by more on charisma than actual proficiency on his instrument seems somewhat counterintuitive. An actor can get by on charisma, but a pianist, or any artist whose talent lies in expression via some physical means (musician, painter, etc.) would seem to require a fair degree of technical and artistic proficiency in order to succeed, far beyond the limits of charisma. Charisma doesn't come across on records, and to only a very limited degree if at all on radio, or even seeing him live at the piano (or other instrument).
As to George Greeley, I looked up not his entry but the film's on Wikipedia. This is the lone paragraph in which Greeley is mentioned:
Soundtrack recordings: In 1956 and 1957 respectively, two musical "soundtrack" recordings, that is, studio recordings of songs from the film, were issued. Twelve of the film's songs were released in The Sound Track Album, The Eddy Duchin Story, with Carmen Cavallaro at the piano. This recording was issued by Decca in 1956 (mono) as DL 8289 and reissued in stereo in 1965 as Decca DL 78289 (which was also issued in Mexico and Canada).[2] In 1957, Capitol Records issued an LP album entitled, Selections from The Eddy Duchin Story (Capitol T-716), featuring nine of the original album's twelve soundtracks. Accompanied by the Harry Geller Orchestra, pianists George Greeley and Harry Sukman performed the selections. Somewhat ironically, both pianists imitated (usually quite closely and rather ably) Cavallaro’s beloved interpretations of the songs rather than Duchin’s. Given the extraordinary commercial success of the original soundtrack, it is no wonder.
According to that article, this is the extent of Greeley's connection with anything remotely connected with the movie. There is no mention of Greeley having been involved with the film itself whatsoever. It does say that Greeley and Sukman imitated Cavallaro rather than Duchin because it was Cavallaro on the original motion picture soundtrack, but how different Cavallaro was from Duchin is left unaddressed.
Aside from this, in most shots we actually see Power "playing" the piano; only rarely do we see close-ups of only someone's hands. In fact, there are several scenes that begin with a shot only of hands playing on the keyboard, before the camera in one uninterrupted and unedited movement swings around to show that Power is the one "performing". Such shots were done quite deliberately to add to the authenticity of Power's performance, and are a tribute to how hard Power worked to become a proficient "fake" piano player. I don't think even Cavallaro ever doubled for Power's hands, and again, there is no mention of Greeley. Besides, what sense would it have made to hire Greeley to imitate Cavallaro imitating Duchin? If you wanted a hand double you'd use the hands of the man actually playing the piano, not some third party even farther removed from the proceedings.
Addendum: I just read Wikipedia's entries for both Greeley and Cavallaro. The entry for Greeley does indeed claim that he played the music and mimed for Power in The Eddy Duchin Story. However, this claim is completely contradicted by the article on Cavallaro. Two portions of that article are pertinent here (edited to include only the relevant references):
Influences and style
Cavallaro developed a piano-playing style of glittering and rippling arpeggios to augment his melody, which was often arranged in thick and lush triple- and quadruple-octave chords. His musical interests and arrangements included dance music, particularly Latin rhythms, tangos and strict tempo dancing styles, as well as some pop and jazz arrangements of classical melodies. In this, he is often cited as being influenced by pianist Eddy Duchin. Liberace was greatly influenced by both Cavallaro and Duchin. All three shared a propensity for arranging classical piano themes in a pop idiom.
And:
Radio and film
His most celebrated film achievement was playing the piano music for actor Tyrone Power’s hands to mime, in The Eddy Duchin Story (1956).
Since there are in addition many photographs of Cavallaro coaching Power for the film, along with frequent references to his work from many sources, and no mention of Greeley whatsoever in connection with the movie anywhere else, the claim in the Wiki article on Greeley concerning his alleged participation in The Eddy Duchin Story seems false. The unreliability of those claims is underscored by the fact that in the film there is self-evidently little if any "doubling" for Power's hands on the keyboard, while the Wiki article claims that Greeley doubled for Power's hands in all the piano scenes, which is plainly false just by watching the movie. Greeley was working for Columbia Pictures at that time but that doesn't necessarily mean he had anything to do with this film. In any case, Cavallaro's work is confirmed by multiple sources and photographic evidence; Greeley's isn't. Not for the first time, Wikipedia has two completely contradictory sets of facts in two different entries.
For what it's worth, the Wiki article on Cavallaro also states that he was influenced by Duchin and patterned his style after him, so they couldn't have been so dissimilar that Cavallaro didn't at least suggest Duchin's style.
End addendum.
On an unrelated personal observation, none of the replies so far goes to my original question about why none of Duchin's recordings was used in the film. The obvious answer is that they could get much better sound resolution from having someone play the music "live" for the film, which also gave the filmmakers the flexibility to compose shots and scenes as they wished.
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