After becoming a movie star at MGM with very MGM-type fare (gloriously inaccurate biopics, broad service comedies, sappy musicals) Mario Lanza then moved over to Warner Bros and made a very Warner Bros-type melodrama, the sort of thing which might have starred Ida Lupino in the 40s. It's jam packed full of story - indeed, it's got more plot than the rest of Lanza's fims together.
Lanza plays a nice grape picker with a glorious voice who is discovered by an impresario (Vincent Price) and his friend (Joan Fontaine). He trains up and becomes a star but gets brought into Fontaine's sexual thrall and goes ga-ga when she cheats on him. He runs away to Mexico and rediscovers his love for singing via a beautiful bullfighter's daughter. He returns to American with his new girl in tow but finds Fontaine wants him back... or at least to taunt him. There's a bull fight re-enactment at a party and someone gets hit by a bus.
It's all deliriously silly and over the top and quite fun if you're in the mood... and are willing to believe there's something about Fontaine that can make not just Lanza but a prize fighter go wild with jealousy and freak out when she doesn't turn up to watch people perform. (In the original novel she was a man who Lanza's character had an affair with). Plenty of great opera songs and Lanza gives, on the whole a strong performance - the guy could act as well as sing.
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