User Reviews

PLOT: Through his tremendous talent and gregarious personality, Enrico Caruso gets a little Quaker girl and her father to lighten up a little.

REVIEW: I am really enjoying the Screen Directors Playhouse series (and my thanks go to Turner Classic Movies for reviving it). There hasn't been a dud yet. And while I agree that this episode isn't the brightest star in that galaxy, it still provides some very entertaining moments.

Lotfi Mansouri does a terrific job of channeling an outgoing and talented Enrico Caruso, and Sandy Descher couldn't be any cuter as the adorable little pixie who invites herself into the Great One's private railroad car. Caruso died in 1921, and just missed the era when movies added sound, so there is probably no film of Caruso singing. This show is probably as close as we will come to "seeing" Caruso sing, and it makes for a richer experience than just listening to his old records.

One thing struck me about this show as I was watching it: Can you imagine a 21st century television show where an unaccompanied 10 year old girl wanders into a room with a stranger, and spends several hours alone with him, without it ever being the slightest bit creepy? Ah, innocence...

Overall, this show was a pleasant and interesting way to pass 30 minutes. Give it a try.

This film is a piece of fanciful fiction that I am sure never actually occurred. A young Quaker girl (Sandy Deschler) is on a train journey* when she notices a lot of folks making a huge fuss over Caruso (Lotfi Mansouri) who is getting on the train. As a Quaker, such ostentatious behaviors are frowned upon and a bit later the little girl approaches the great opera singer to tell him about the importance of humility. Caruso is quite taken with her and spends the rest of the trip serenading and talking to the nice young lady in his private compartment.

This is a very charming episode of "Screen Director's Playhouse". It lacks depth (the story is VERY simple) and never could have happened, but it is enjoyable. Additionally, Deschler was adorable as the girl and Mansouri did fine as the famed tenor and they used Caruso's own recordings (primitive as they are) and Mansouri lip synced along with them. Interestingly, Mansouri was an Iranian-American but his accent sounded pretty good- -though with such a heavy accent it also would have helped if the show had been captioned (especially since I am hard of hearing).

Screen Directors Playhouse: The Day I Met Caruso (1956)

** (out of 4)

A 10-year-old Quaker girl named Elizabeth (Sandy Descher) boards a Boston to New York train where on-board she meets the one and only Enrico Caruso (Lotfi Mansouri). At first the girl isn't impressed with this man but that soon changes when he begins to sing. This Frank Borzage film is a rather bizarre one and I'm not going to try and hide the fact that the end result is somewhat of a letdown. While watching the film I really couldn't understand what the director and writer were going for. Yes, the little girl is experiencing something she's going to remember for the rest of her life but I'm still a bit confused on why us, the viewer, should care. The two talk about religion and Caruso teaches her a few card tricks. Fine but not all that entertaining. The only thing that saves the film from complete boredom is getting to hear some famous Caruso tunes. The singing is undoubtedly terrific and it makes the film worth sitting through. Many will probably notice how poor some of the audio is compared to the rest of the film but it's worth noting that Caruso died before higher fidelity recordings came into play. Both Descher and Mansouri are good in their parts but outside the actual singing there's very little going on here.

This is one of the weakest episodes of SCREEN DIRECTORS PLAYHOUSE, which seems astonishing given that Zoe Akins scripted and Frank Borzage directed.

Really, it comes down to an excuse to play selections of Caruso recordings. This is a reasonable, even fine thing to have, but ninety percent of it is shot cheaply with Sandy Descher as a young Quaker girl and Lotfi Mansouri as Caruso in a private rail car and most of that time seems to consist of a repeated one-shot of Miss Descher gazing raptly -- at Caruso while he sings.

Nonetheless there is a bit of subtext to this short. The little Quaker girl plays Caruso opera records at home and one of Caruso's numbers is his cover of George M. Cohan's "Over There". There was an era when American culture had not fractured irremediably; while one person's preference might be for opera and another's for Cohan, it would be viewed as a matter of taste and a well-rounded individual would be on at least nodding acquaintance with both. The 1950s, which we mock nowadays for its stultifying conformity was the last era when that consensus held, when you might see a new Bugs Bunny movie which used a Rossini opera as its starting point. Then Rock and Roll arose and culture wars began. We are all poorer for it.

That doesn't make this particularly worth watching. However, you can find Caruso recordings for sale on Itune. He did sing with the voice of an angel.