Tyrone Power plays Duchin and sad to say by the 1950's Power had lost his matinee idol looks. Kim Novak plays his first wife who was a socialite and in this Hollywood version of Duchin's life she is "afraid of the wind" and dies giving birth on Christmas day. Novak was a star created by Columbia pictures to keep Rita Hayworth in line. Her death scene is one of those only in the movies bits where she gets more beautiful as she gets sicker.
The Eddy Duchin Story was shot in Cinemascope by Harry Stradling one of MGM's great cinematographers and it looks good in widescreen. The film also benefits from having a director like George Sidney. Sidney had done plenty of musicals and was very familiar with the world of show business. Sidney and Stradling make the musical scenes of Power playing the piano very entertaining with their imaginative approach to what could have been pretty boring scenes of a guy pounding on the piano.
The Eddy Duchin Story is what it is, another phony Hollywood biography of a performer who had a pretty colorful life. You only have to do a quick Internet search on Duchin to see his actual story. This guy was a real skirt chaser. In the film he comes off as Mr. Wonderful.
This film was apparently nominated for four academy awards and was very popular with audiences. George Sidney deserves some respect for his ability to turn this tripe into an entertaining film, it's still tripe though.
123 minutes.
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