Taken from an idea by Silent Screen Star Seena Owen low budget director Edgar G. Ulmar pays homage to classical music and captures the performances of many of the greatest living soloist and conductors of the 1940's. The plot is simple and somewhat sweet. Cute little Irish immigrant moves to the New York during the opening of the great hall. By coincident her aunt works there and she is allowed to watch the performance. Struck by it's beauty, she develops a life-long obsession with Carnegie Hall; where she eventually begins work as a cleaning woman. She marries a pianist, and during the weakest part of the script they shoot from many years of bliss to a marriage ending fight when he decides to quit the Hall. Conveniently, he falls down the stairs drunk and dies. While their son is growing up mom continues to guide his life toward The Hall. Studying, practicing finally becomes a burden for him and in his late teens or early twenties meets a young singer and he runs off with her and joins a dance band. Time goes by and our mom has become old, she has risen through the ranks of Carnegie Hall and has become rich, but she does not have her son. She realizes that she has made mistakes and when the young wife of her son asks for her help she rushes to make everything alright...of course we end up back at The Hall for a happy ending.
All this is merely decoration for the directors true purpose, the music and the artists. I had the chance to meet Marsha Hunt many years ago when I was a young man in L.A. She was a very pleasant women and still attractive, but I never had any idea how beautiful she was as a young woman. She is stunning and her talent is no less so. I am not amazed that such a talent is lost in early Hollywood. I have heard so many stories about similar destruction of great talent, by less talented studio heads of the time. They had no idea what to do with intelligent and talented women. It was all of our loss, however, that Ms. Hunt was not able to command a career that would have been fitting. In this movie, she alone carries the story. As ridiculous as the script is, and the ton of plot holes she makes the film watchable when the musicians are not on screen.
All this is merely decoration for the directors true purpose, the music and the artists. I had the chance to meet Marsha Hunt many years ago when I was a young man in L.A. She was a very pleasant women and still attractive, but I never had any idea how beautiful she was as a young woman. She is stunning and her talent is no less so. I am not amazed that such a talent is lost in early Hollywood. I have heard so many stories about similar destruction of great talent, by less talented studio heads of the time. They had no idea what to do with intelligent and talented women. It was all of our loss, however, that Ms. Hunt was not able to command a career that would have been fitting. In this movie, she alone carries the story. As ridiculous as the script is, and the ton of plot holes she makes the film watchable when the musicians are not on screen.