It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A Song is Born may be seventy (70) years old now but the song remains the same. This is a romance disguised as a mobster movie, The sexy nightclub singer Honey Swanson (Virginia Mayo) finds her very own Prince Charming in the form of Professor Hobart Frisbee (Danny Kaye) when she takes the Professor up on his offer to assist him in documenting the history of this new musical discovery from the United Sates called "jazz music". So Honey Swanson needs to find a place to lay low to avoid the federal investigators from subpoenaing her so she hides out at Professor Hobart Frisbee's academic school of music where the two lovebirds fall madly in love. The wicked witch is played by mobster Tony Crow (Steve Cochran) who sends for his dame Honey Swanson so that he can marry her so as his wife, she can't squeal to the Feds on a murder rap that they have targeted Tony Crow for committing.Virginia Mayo's beauty as Honey Swanson is not animated as in the Disney classic as she is a true beauty of the silver screen age. Danny Kaye who can't help but fall in love with Honey hears the music playing constantly in his head once he sets eyes first on Honey. The film has great jazz music, the comedy of Danny Kaye and his seven (7) stooges who are all his fellow music professors who have to find a way to save their princess Honey Swanson, and a barrage of cameo appearances by many of the great jazz legends of the time.This comedy/romance/musical is sure to rock your world! I give it a solid 9 out of 10 rating.

Best Movie with History of Music and such incredible talent! Goodman, Golden Gate Quartet, Louis Armstrong, T. Dorsey, C. Barnett, Louis Belson (drummer), Mel Powell, Hampton.laughs, songs, hysterical characters like Monty and Joe with their accents and their slang..I have seen movie about 10 x and never tire of it!!we need to value this era with the intro of jazz, jump, jive, swing and re bop!Any student of Music should view this film to hear and appreciate the classic music styles and their introduction into our culture.

I fell in love with this movie first viewing it as a kid several years ago. I am surprised TCM does not air it more often. Danny Kaye plays a stuffed shirt music professor who lives with 5 other elder professors.Kaye sets out to document the history of Jazz music visiting clubs and inviting the musicians he has heard to several daily "jam" sessions to record music for a jazz library. He invites a lounge singer he meets,who is involved with a mob boss, and she winds up hiding out from the law at the professors house jamming with these musicians. This film is excellent for one good reason: the musicians invited are some of the best jazz players that ever lived. Clarinet player BennyGoodman, trombonist Tommy Dorsey, Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, Pianist Mel Powell, and the great Louis Armstrong. There are also two vocal groups, guitarists and percussionists. If you ever had a dream group of musicians you wanted to see play together, you won't be disappointed with this film.One of the remarkable features of this film is not just that so many jazz greats were in it but that they were able to play together in the first place. This movie was made in 1948 when segregation was very much in force. Many of the great white jazz musicians of this time could not play on stage with the black musicians. The clubs white musicians played at did not allow blacks in them or they had to enter through the back door. Most of the time it simply was not allowed. So many great white jazz players who admired Armstrong and Hampton could never play with them because of this. Watch this film though, every jam session you see all the musicians present, black and white, are so engulfed in the music, no one even notices black, white or whatever. Just great music and a lot of fun! The back story is a little silly with Mayo on the lamb from the DA and hiding out at Kaye's residence. Kaye falls for her , playing naive and clueless to her motives. But of course they will wind up together in the end. Mayo looked beautiful in this film,great body! But the real draw is all the musicians. If you're a lover of jazz or even just music, this is a true gem to watch.

"A Song is Born" was made in 1948. This was a remake of 1941's "Ball of Fire" with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.A group of dull music professors are studying the history of music. Two window cleaners urge Danny Kaye, a music professor, to go out and hear music around him.In Damon Runyan-like atmosphere, he accidentally gets involved with gangsters and their moll-Virginia Mayo.She hides out by Kaye and his other professors as she is wanted for questioning regarding a murder that her guy-Steve Cochran-may have committed. Remember Cochran and Mayo two years earlier in the Oscar-winning "The Best Years of Our Lives?"When she hides out, she brings an assortment of musicians with her to join the professors and all belt out music. Thanks to Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey, the music shines. Benny Goodman is unrecognizable as one of the corny music professors.The hostage situation at film's end is hilarious at best. A musical treat; funny and memorable when Kaye pops the question. Lots of good fun.