The Eddy Duchin Story (1956) Reviews

A typical biography of a popular musician in the studio era was all scrubbed clean, high-gloss, highly-fictional biographical bits in-between popular stars belting out the greatest hits of the artist(s) depicted. It can make for entertaining spectacle, and several great musical stars gave their greatest moments in them. Think of Lena Horne’s one-two punch of “The Lady is a Tramp” and “Where or When” in Words and Music, Judy Garland’s elegiac “Look for the Silver Lining” in Till the Clouds Roll By, and so much of Yankee Doodle Dandy is memorable thanks to James Cagney’s high-energy performance.

Shame then that The Eddy Duchin Story cannot muster up as much energy or memorable performances to go along with the inert dramatics and creaky story telling. There’s a large aftertaste of fiction in telling this story, and wouldn’t you know it, Peter Duchin hates the film for crafting more fiction than fact.

If The Eddy Duchin Story were entertaining in all aspects, then this highly speculative aspect would go down easier. No such luck, as the story is routine, and delivered in as perfunctory and unimaginative a manner as possible. You know exactly where the story is going from the first frame, and as each new revelation comes about, you’ll just roll your eyes because it knew it was coming twenty minutes prior.

Perhaps a better leading man would have helped. Tyrone Power is overeager in too much of the film and grossly miscast in general. He’s far too old for the earlier scenes, and generates no chemistry with either Kim Novak or Victoria Shaw. I suppose, since Power was never much of an actor, he does as well as can be expected, but his bitterness in the latter half is as deeply unappealing as the first half’s desperate mover.

Much of The Eddy Duchin Story could have better served Kim Novak, but the film is immeasurably aided by her ethereal, moody presence wandering New York and being a general clotheshorse. The part never requires much from her, and she’s purely the high society girl, but Novak is blossoming as a movie star here. While Victoria Shaw as the second wife is too arch and theatrical here, standing in contrast to Novak’s more subdued work and Power’s movie star posing.

But Novak is quickly introduced and taken out of the film, with less than forty minutes of screen time before a glamorous death bed scene. Once she leaves, so does much of the interest in the plot. The next hour is a sinking ship of boredom and tedium, with Duchin reuniting with his estranged son, enlisting in the military, trying to make right, then dying at a young age. The Eddy Duchin Story is a handsome vehicle with no power under the hood. Even worse, it's just plain boring and distinctly lacking in entertainment value aside from the shiny surfaces.