The Great Caruso

1951 Rated NR · ⭐ 5.8 · Votes: 13

“The Intimate Story of a Man with a Voice as Great as His Heart!”

Loosely traces the life of tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921). He loves Musetta in his home town of Naples and then Dorothy the daughter of one of the Metropolitan Opera's patrons. Caruso is unacceptable to both women's fathers: to one because he sings; to Dorothy's because he is a peasant. To New York patricians Caruso is short barrel chested loud emotional unrefined. Their appreciation comes slowly. The film depicts Caruso's lament that "the man does not have the voice the voice has the man": he cannot be places he wants to be because he must be elsewhere singing including the day his mother dies. Throughout Mario Lanza and stars from the Met sing.