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It's the final Screen Director's Playhouse of the day, one called "The Day I Met Caruso" directed by Frank Borzage. It's about a little girl who shares a train compartment with Caruso and is treated to a private concert. What makes it weird is that every time Caruso sings, the soundtrack switches to a scratchy 78. Of course the star was chosen for his resemblance to Caruso rather than his singing ability, but we are expected to accept the switch from a perfectly clean 1956-era soundtrack to a scratchy acoustic 78rpm. When you add to the mix Caruso's constant references to his traveling companion as "Quaker Child", we are left with a very strange brew indeed.

Oh man, i knew that title sounded familiar! The actor was in fact a tenor though apparently didn't supply his own voice! He left singing behind to become a opera director and was for several years the general director of the San Francisco Opera. I saw a clip of Lotfi Mansouri's one and only acting role at his going-away gala, where it got a lot of laughs.

greta

Rob Farr wrote:It's the final Screen Director's Playhouse of the day, one called "The Day I Met Caruso" directed by Frank Borzage. It's about a little girl who shares a train compartment with Caruso and is treated to a private concert. What makes it weird is that every time Caruso sings, the soundtrack switches to a scratchy 78. Of course the star was chosen for his resemblance to Caruso rather than his singing ability, but we are expected to accept the switch from a perfectly clean 1956-era soundtrack to a scratchy acoustic 78rpm.

They did tell us in the opening credits that they'd be using old original Caruso records for the "Caruso" actor's singing parts, even the name and number of the Victor Records album.
So apparently they felt they'd better warn us!

I've never seen that one but I've read the little story it was based on- Caruso sings while they play cards, just breaking off to say things like "You should play the ace there"

Norman Rockwell was an extra at the Metropolitan Opera when he was a boy & He wrote that during one performance of AIDA he kept Caruso company in a little room below stage - Rhadames was supposed to be in the tomb at that point. Caruso would draw caricatures and watch a little light that blinked in time with the music- then on cue he'd throw back his head and groan "OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!"

I've never seen this but wonder if they at least used the electrical "re-creations" of certain Caruso recordings. These were done (I think) in the 1930s, long after his death anyway, and commercially issued on Victor/HMV 78s. The difference was that his voice was superimposed on a new, electrically recorded orchestral accompaniment which gave the original acoustic recordings a more modern sound. (To purist collectors, this was of course as bad as colorizing a black & white film!)

Incidentally, Caruso's silent feature My Cousin (in which he plays a dual role) was released on this set which I bought in the UK version some years ago, but both editions now appear to be OOP. It includes footage of Caruso performing on stage, and I once saw a UK documentary which attempted to sync part of one of his recordings of Vesti la giubba (Pagliacci) to the film.