HotToastyRag In The Toast of New Orleans, Kathryn Grayson plays a beautiful opera singer with a beautiful soprano singing voice. As you can imagine, she pulls it off wonderfully; the problem with this movie has nothing to do with her performance. She's romantically involved with her manager, the classy, handsome, wealthy, supportive David Niven. So far so good. Enter Mario Lanzo, a poor, crude, ignorant fisherman who happens to have been blessed with a natural singing talent. Now, why would Kathryn-who has everything a woman could ask for in her career and relationship-be drawn to Mario? That, my friends, is the problem with The Toast of New Orleans. If they wanted us to sympathize with her conflict, they shouldn't have cast David Niven!To give her credit, when Mario first imposes himself, Kathryn wants nothing to do with him. He literally interrupts her singing with his own, topping her high notes and singing as loud as he can without bursting a lung. However, The Niv is intrigued by Mario's untrained talent and attempts to turn him into a genteel opera singer to match Kathryn. Some of the scenes are cute, but the basic story just doesn't make any sense because not only is The Niv a class act, but his character is written to have no flaws. If he's going to be as gorgeous in Technicolor as David Niven is, he should at least be written with flaws, as he was in Please Don't Eat the Daisies. The big song from The Toast of New Orleans is the lovely ballad "Be My Love", and while I'm not really a fan of Mario Lanzo's voice, the duet he sings with Kathryn is pretty cute. If that's one of your favorite songs, you might want to watch the movie that introduced it to the world. I've been overly harsh on this movie, but it really isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be. If you like Kathryn Grayson or operatic singing, you might like this cutesy musical.

gkeith_1 I love this movie. I am a first soprano, and I feel that Kathryn Grayson had an absolutely beautiful voice. Paired with the famous tenor of Mario Lanza (not Danza; he is a "dancer" BTW), Kathryn is absolutely radiant.I liked seeing James Mitchell (Dream Curly in Oklahoma movie), and I never saw his soap opera. He was a wonderful dancer in Oklahoma, and the same in Toast of N.O. Rita Moreno went on to appear in The King and I Movie, plus later as everybody knows as the older sister in movie West Side Story. She is still alive at 81-82 years old, and still looks very beautiful. James and Rita are excellent in Toast of N.O.J. Carrol Naish; quite the funnyman. Accent a riot. Clothes totally ridiculous and wonderful. Table manners from he#@; too funny for words. A shrimp expert, LOL.Niven the staid proper Britisher; not my idea of a romantic leading man. He was the onlooker. Didn't want to make marriage more important a career than opera. Kathryn actually had to ask HIM to marry HER. He was such a numbskull.Loved seeing the oldtime stage actor photographs on the walls and furniture. I recognized young Constance Collier. Pictures obviously of that era in theatre history. You see old theatrical performer photographs in other movies such as Yankee Doodle Dandy and Morning Glory. Constance Collier, a stage beauty in early 20th century, was the elderly resident in movie Stage Door starring Kathryn Hepburn and Ginger Rogers.Lanza, when dressed up and gentlemanly, reminding me of Enrico Caruso -- the Homburg hat, fancy morning coat, etc.; rotund body; dark hair; matinée presence. When dressed in fisherman garb, he always got the attention from his bright red scarf or perhaps his rotund body and loud voice.I love the city of New Orleans, in real life. Noticed French Quarter-looking scene in this movie; the lace balconies plus matte-background church, etc. Raspberries and plaintains for sale, indeed. Lanza sang to everyone on the street.Clinton Sundberg tended to have secondary, but important, roles, that seemed to tie the stories together. He did not have leading man looks, but was gentle with the other characters.Some posters said Kathryn played an upper class society woman, but I think if we look underneath the facade here was yet another of Niven's lower class discoveries who decided to fake her way into N.O. society. N.O. is rather sophisticated in some parts than some think compared to the fishing-community "rustics" as portrayed in this movie, but I am sure that the Cajuns had a lot more sense than some of the city dwellers.Yes, this was 50s movie-making, as some said. This was also 40s storytelling, and YES it was post-World War II -- BUT give the movie makers credit for a sugar coated fantasy instead of the fighting-and-killing-World-War-II movies that went on for decades afterward. You can imagine perhaps this movie was started in 1949, cast in 1948, storyboard 1946, ideas 1942-1943 during the ugliest part of the worldwide conflict. So, stop whining and complaining and enjoy this wonderful escapist bit of fluff. RIP Kathryn Grayson, who had one of the most beautiful singing voices in musical movies.The only thing missing here was tap dancing, which, as all of you know, is my fave. (And they could have slipped Gene Kelly in here, from Anchors Aweigh with Kathryn Grayson).

writers_reign It seems fairly obvious that at MGM they were staunch believers in the saying if it ain't broke don't fix it. In 1949 they launched their new signing Mario Lanza in That Midnight Kiss; he played a truck driver who both liked to and could sing as the insipid Kathryn Grayson discovered when he delivered a piano to her home. By chance Grayson was a fledgling opera singer and gave Lanza a send-in with Jose Iturbi. In passing Grayson fell for Lanza but he had an 'understanding' with Marjorie Reynolds. So much for plot. The film made big bucks so they remade it the next year. This time Lanza is a shrimp fisherman who likes to and can sing, Grayson is now a full-fledged opera diva who discovers him by chance and this time around, just so we can't say 'not again', it's Lanza who falls for her and her that has an 'understanding' with David Niven as the impresario who gives Lanza a crack at Madame Butterly. In the previous film J.Carroll Naish scored as Lanza's father so, for extra insurance, he's here again but this time as Lanza's uncle. Subtle, right. There was only one 'new' song in That Midnight Kiss so MGM put Sammy Cahn and Nicholas Brodzsy to work and they came up with Lanza's first million seller Be My Love albeit Grayson sings it first and then they duet. By 1950 there was probably just enough post-war hysteria sill hanging around to make this palatable.

FelixtheCat Turn-of-the-century New Orleans is the setting of this operatic, musical romance starring Mario Lanza and his powerful voice and the porcelain Kathryn Grayson. Lanza plays a bayou, shrimp fisherman who lives with his nagging uncle, J. Carrol Naish. He is a brash and verile lout until an opera director, David Niven, sees him singing and believes he is the tenor that his opera has been needing. Lanza's voice is ironed out through the company's training as are his brutish manners, with the help of opera star Grayson, whom Lanza has fallen for. The humor is typical, but opera lovers may enjoy the inclusion of arias from "Mignon," "Carmen," and "La Traviata," along with duets from "Madam Butterfly." A young Rita Moreno appears as a waterfront girl.