The Helen Morgan Story

The Helen Morgan Story, released in the UK as Both Ends of the Candle, is a 1957 American biographical film directed by Michael Curtiz starring Ann Blyth and Paul Newman.

The screenplay by Oscar Saul, Dean Riesner, Stephen Longstreet, and Nelson Gidding is based on the life and career of torch singer/actress Helen Morgan, with fictional touches liberally added for dramatic purposes. This turned out to be Blyth's final film role.

Another version of Morgan's life story, Helen Morgan, was produced as a live television drama on Playhouse 90, with Polly Bergen as Morgan. Despite requests to delay the television version, it aired five months before the release of the film.

Production

In 1950, Boxoffice announced Warner Bros. Pictures was planning to release a musical biography with Doris Day as Helen Morgan. This is one of the few studio projects Day refused to make, citing she did not want to portray the sordid aspects of Morgan's life, which were in direct contrast to Day's wholesome screen image. There was also considerable speculation and negotiation over the prospect that the film would be made with Judy Garland, following her Oscar-nominated performance in A Star is Born.

Critical reception

In his review in The New York Times, A. H. Weiler called the film "as uplifting as soap opera" and added, "The indestructible tunes and the producers' fairly honest approach to the sleaziness of the speakeasy era should generate genuine nostalgia, but Miss Morgan's career, on film, appears to be uninspired, familiar fare...It's all about as heart-warming as an electric pad. Ann Blyth...desperately attempts to capture the essentially moving qualities of the performer...[she] is fragile, sweet and timorous in the role, but she cannot manage to project the idea that she is swaying audiences either by singing or emotional force."

Variety called it "little more than a tuneful soap opera" and added, "The story line sometimes strains credulity and the dialogue situations occasionally give the production a cornball flavor...Director Michael Curtiz has done a good job with the material at hand, injecting a pacing and bits of business that help maintain interest, and the production gets added benefit from a series of hit tunes of the era...Blyth turns in a sympathetic but not always convincing performance. Newman is very good as the rackets guy, giving the part authority and credibility."

TV Guide wrote "Helen Morgan was the greatest torch singer, a petite brunette who sat atop pianos plaintively warbling sad songs about the men who mistreated her. More a profile of those songs than a detailed exposition of her life, this film offers only a slice of a fabulous and unforgettable career...most of the wobbly plot is fictional, which is unfortunate since Morgan's true story was much more spectacular and, had it been followed, would have provided a finer film."