Music in My Heart (1940)

My Review

A musical vehicle for Tony Martin. A showcase for cinematic beauty Rita Hayworth. A light and breezy Depression Era musical-comedy. All are accurate descriptions of “Music in My Heart,” the story of a Broadway understudy who gets his first show biz break just as he gets deported for an expired visa. On the way to the ship, his cab is in a car wreck with Rita Hayworth’s cab. She is on her way to be married to a millionaire, with the comedy proceeding from there.

Director Joseph Stanley (“Melody Ranch” 1940) and screenwriter James Edward Grant had no trouble creating a pleasant B-film with a talent cast – Tony Martin, Rita Hayworth, Alan Mowbray, Eric Blore, Edith Fellows, George Tobias, George Humbert, Joey Rey, and Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra. The song “It’s a Blue World” (Chet Forrest, Bob Wright), performed by Martin and Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, received the film’s sole Oscar nod. “Music in My Heart” was a modest box office hit for Columbia Pictures.