George Gershwin was perhaps, America's greatest composer. Judging by his output of popular songs, as well as some of the serious music he left behind. George Gershwin was a man that got his inspiration by a lot of the popular and black music he heard when he was growing up and mixed it with some of the classical music that he learned as a young piano student. The result is a body of work that is not easy equaled by any of his contemporaries.

In "Rhapsody in Blue", his biographical picture, director Irving Rapper has recreated that period in the young composer's life with the help of the screen play writers, Howard Koch, Sonya Levien, and the uncredited Clifford Odets, as he takes us along to witness a account on this original music man.

We get to see the ambitious George, who could play anything on the piano his parents intended for his brother Ira to study music. It was clear from the start George was a natural who had no problem composing some of the best melodies that became standards during the 20th century and continue to delight us after so many years.

Along the way there is the story of the man who falls in love with the lovely and sophisticated Christine Gilbert, who he met in France. Julie Adams, the girl who was to become the star in many of his shows, loved George in silence. Of course, these two women are a product of the writers imagination, or a composite for the real women in his life.

We are also shown the world in which George lived. There is Prof. Frank, who taught the young man the best of the classical piano repertoire. His parents, Morris and Rose, who adored their sons. We also meet some of the men that shaped his life like Max Dreyfus, his manager, Oscar Levant, his friend and best interpreter, along with some real figures like Paul Whiteman, George White, Al Jolson, Hazel Scott, among others.

Robert Alda resembled the real George Gershwin; his take on the man rings true. Joan Leslie is Julie Adams, and Alexis Smith is Christine Gilbert, the women in George life. Charles Coburn plays Max Dreyfus. Morris Carnovsky and Rosemary DeCamp are seen as the parents.

The best excuse to watch the film is the glorious music one hears in it. The movie is easy on the eye, and while it might not be accurate, it still makes for a pleasant view of this genius of some of the best American popular music of all times.

As a biopic, Rhapsody in Blue will disappoint, but musically it is an epic feast that nobody can fail to delight in.

Sure, the script is cliché-ridden and sentimental, the film is a bit too long and drags in places and those expecting accuracy or honesty here will be very short-changed, as with most music biopics of this period Rhapsody in Blue is heavily fictionalised. Herbert Rudley also felt undercast as Gershwin's brother Ira.

On the other hand, Rhapsody in Blue does look good, with the costumes and sets evoking the period accurately and beautifully and the black and white photography is lovely (though maybe the film may have fared even better in colour). It's well directed, the musical numbers are well and solidly staged and the cast mostly do not disappoint. Robert Alda is a charismatic and likable Gershwin, Alexis Smith is charming and Rosemary DeCamp is compassionate and moving. There are also fabulous supporting turns from a pianistically brilliant and very funny Oscar Levant and a fabulously soulful Al Jolson, his rendition of Swanee being the film's high point. What really makes Rhapsody in Blue worth watching is the absolutely phenomenal music, there's lots of it, which will delight die-hard Gershwin fans, and it is all very well performed (Levant and Jolson in particular standing out).

To conclude, a musical feast but could have been better if more attention was put into the biographical elements. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The music, of course, is a treat. What a florescence of vernacular music America experienced between 1920 and 1955. Not just Gershwin but Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Harry Warren, and a dozen others whose tunes have become part of a sort of golden songbook.

This black-and-white précis of George Gershwin's brief life manages to squeeze in quite a few tunes, as well as some of his more ambitious work. And they're well done. Oscar Levant plays the piano and Oscar Levant. He's great, pustular with humor.

If we're to believe the biographical part, or even part of the biographical part, Gershwin really got around in musical circles -- meeting such stars of the classical world as Ravel and Milhaud.

The family part, indulgent father, practical mother, also passes muster. Somewhere along the line, though, we get Gershwin's approach/approach conflict with honest and loving showgirl Joan Leslie, on one side, and neurotic, artist manqué and socialite Alexis Smith on the other.

It seems to me I've heard that song before. We can hear a different version in "Young Man With a Horn". And if we replace adoring Joan Leslie here with adoring Mamma, we get "The Benny Goodman Story." It's a strict Hollywood product. Music aside, there's hardly an original note in this movie, not even the "diminished seventh" that Gershwin's first publisher refers to, whatever it is. I'm more familiar with diminished fifths.