Conference bookie::movies

791.0. "Hear My Song" by SWAM2::SMITH_MA () Mon Mar 27 1995 16:40

    
    
    Saw this Saturday night on the Bravo channel.  I had seen it in the
    theater when it was first released.  I highly recommend it the next
    time you're renting...probably find it in the foreign film section.
    
    Synopsis:
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    The movie is set in England and Ireland and is, essentially, a love
    story.  It is a spin off of a true story involving Josef Locke, an
    Irish tenor who fled Britain in 1958 to avoid tax evasion charges.  The
    story is sort of a "what if" tacked on to this real fact.
    
    A club owner, Mickey, is engaged to a beautiful girl, only he can't
    seem to say the words "I love you".  His club is in a bit of trouble
    and the owners of the building want to evict him.  In a last ditch
    effort to save his club he promises to book Josef Locke, the favorite
    tenor of the women on the tenant board.  He books a man claiming to be
    Locke (Mickey finds out he's a fake but allows him to go on anyway).  
    
    In the audience is his fiancee and her mother.  Her mother had been
    voted Miss Dairy Goodness in 1958.  The judge of the contest in 1958
    was...Josef Locke!  After the contest, she and Mr. Locke had an affair
    and fell madly in love.  When Locke left the country, he left her
    behind and she still carries a torch.  When she discovers that the
    singer is a fake, she points the finger at Mickey and rushes from the
    club in tears...taking the fiancee and the woman of the tenant board
    with him.
    
    So now Mickey has no club, no fiancee and no money.  To make it up to
    everyone, he decides to find the real Josef Locke and so makes his way
    to Ireland to track him down...this all happens very early on in the
    movie...the rest is Mickey looking for Locke and...well, you'll see.
    
    Great story, wonderful cinematography, splendid acting.
    
    4 1/2 out of 5 stars!
    
    MJ

Yes, this one's a little gem. Ned Beatty, who usually plays weak, nebbishy
characters, shines as Locke, and Adrian Dunbar (what else has he acted in?)
is great as the innocently conniving music hall owner. The picture has the same
kind of charm and humor and quirky characters as "Local Hero", but on a larger
stage, and a fair bit of well-done slapstick as well - and the music is
lovely... 

    Also in this film -- David McCallum (of Man from U.N.C.L.E. fame) as
    the police inspector.
    
    ****

    
    
    I especially loved the 2 guys who work for Mickey.  Their dance number
    is wonderful!!!
    
    MJ

Rathole on David McCallum moved to its own topic, #799.


-- Nina

    Yes, a li'l gem of a movie. I especially liked the appearances by
    "Frank Cenatra" :-)
    			Jim B