By Violet LeVoit
The Toast of New Orleans
Brief Synopsis
A New Orleans fisherman fights snobbery to become an opera star.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Norman Taurog
Director
Kathryn Grayson
Suzette Micheline
Mario Lanza
Pepe Abellard Duvalle
David Niven
Jacques Riboudeaux
J. Carrol Naish
Nicky Duvalle
James Mitchell
Pierre
Film Details
Also Known As
Kiss of Fire, Serenade to Suzette, This Weekend Is Yours
Genre
Musical
Music
Romance
Release Date
Sep
29,
1950
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 37m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Color (Technicolor)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8,716ft
Synopsis
In the early 1900s, in the swamplands of Louisiana, the Cajun fishing village of Bayou Minou is buzzing with activity as it prepares for the annual celebration of the blessing of the fishing fleet. During the festival, the village hosts two guests of honor from New Orleans: opera star Suzette Micheline and opera director Jacques Riboudeaux. Soon after arriving in Bayou Minou, Suzette, who has a romantic understanding with Jacques, meets the handsome and uncouth Pepe Abellard Duvalle, the nephew of fisherman Nicky Duvalle. Though Suzette is initially attracted to Pepe, she soon becomes perturbed by his crude manners, and is angered when he interrupts her musical recital at the festival and turns her solo into a duet. Jacques, however, is greatly impressed with Pepe's beautiful tenor voice, and invites Pepe to train in New Orleans and sing in his opera. Pepe initially rejects the offer, but later changes his mind when a ferocious storm sinks his uncle's fishing boat. Pepe and Nicky leave Bayou Minou in the hope that Pepe will be able to make enough money to buy a new boat. Soon after Pepe arrives in New Orleans, Jacques decides he must make Pepe more presentable in public, and enlists the help of Suzette to soften his "rough edges." Jacques also hires his well-heeled friend Oscar to teach Jacques some high society manner. Jacques later takes Pepe to Maestro P. Trellini, who is amazed at Pepe's voice and agrees to train him. One evening, Pepe and Nicky join Jacques and Suzette for an elegant dinner at a fancy restaurant, but they nearly spoil the evening with their crude country manners. While Oscar continues to teach Pepe about social graces, Trellini makes great progress training Pepe's voice. Jacques eventually becomes so confident in his new tenor that he makes plans to include Pepe in a worldwide tour of his opera. Suzette takes great pleasure in refining Pepe's behavior and tastes, and a romance appears inevitable. Suzette, however, is torn between her attraction to Pepe and her desire to please Jacques, who is responsible for advancing her singing career. One day, when Pepe tries to kiss Suzette, she rejects him and then hurriedly asks Jacques to marry her. Nicky, meanwhile, becomes homesick and impatient with his nephew's efforts to become rich and vows to return to Bayou Manou. Later, Pepe tells Jacques that he is in love with Suzette and that he intends to leave New Orleans because she has spurned him. Although Jacques now realizes that Suzette proposed to him only to save her career, he encourages Pepe to stay in New Orleans and continue his opera training. Tina and Pierre, two of Pepe's friends from Bayou Manou, visit Pepe one day, but they are disappointed when they discover that their fun-loving friend has become cold and rigid. Eventually, Suzette and Jacques, too, become alarmed at the change in Pepe's personality. After rejecting a marriage proposal from Pepe, Suzette explains to Jacques that she was in love with Pepe before he became so refined, but no longer has feelings for him. When Tina and Pierre leave New Orleans because they are bored, Pepe finally realizes that he has changed for the worse. During a performance of Madame Butterfly , Pepe reverts to his natural behavior and, as a result, is able to reignite his romance with Suzette.
Director
Norman Taurog
Director
Cast
Kathryn Grayson
Suzette Micheline
Mario Lanza
Pepe Abellard Duvalle
David Niven
Jacques Riboudeaux
J. Carrol Naish
Nicky Duvalle
James Mitchell
Pierre
Richard Hageman
Maestro P. Trellini
Clinton Sundberg
Oscar
Sig Arno
Mayor
Rita Moreno
Tina
Romo Vincent
Manuelo
George Davis
Stooge
Marietta Canty
Angelique
Alex Gerry
Headwaiter
Wallis Clark
Mr. O'Neill
Paul Frees
Narrator
Henry Corden
Fisherman
Nick Thompson
Fisherman
Carmella Restivo
Fat woman
Charles Mauu
Passerby
George Nardelli
Chauffeur
Jacques George
Priest
Ernesto Morelli
Father
George Meader
Stage door man
Jean Del Val
Dominique
Bethe Douglas
Woman in café
Gene Brown
Pretty woman
Guy De Vestel
Waiter
Dino Bolognese
Waiter
Eduard Moreno
Waiter
Robert Emmett Keane
Chairman
Nino Pipitone
Store clerk
Fred Essler
Emile
Leon Belasco
Orchestra leader
Louise Bates
Dowager
Andre Charlot
Dignified man
Sandy Lawrence
Secretary
Loulette Sablon
Costumer
Helen Dickson
Dowager
Betty Daniels
Mary Benoit
John Piffle
Mitchell Lewis
Michael Kostrick
Mike Tellegen
Paul Bryar
George Humbert
Crew
Armando Agnini
Opera sequences stage by
Jules Barbier
Composer
Georges Bizet
Composer
Dick Borland
Grip
Nicholas Brodszky
Composer
Sammy Cahn
Composer
Reggie Callow
Assistant Director
Michel Carré
Composer
Daniel B. Cathcart
Art Director
Gaetano Donizetti
Composer
Grace Dubray
Script Supervisor
Friedrich Von Flotow
Composer
Robert Franklyn
Orchestration
Jane Garten
Hairstylist
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
A. Arnold Gillespie
Special Effects
Sy Gomberg
Writer
James Gooch
Technicolor col consultants
Johnny Green
Operatic numbers Conductor
Sydney Guilaroff
Hair styles Designer
Ludovic Halévy
Composer
Henri Jaffa
Technicolor col consultants
Jimmie James
Gaffer
Eugene Loring
Dances staged by
Henri Meilhac
Composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Composer
Warren Newcombe
Special Effects
Joe Pasternak
Producer
Richard A. Pefferle
Associate (Sets)
Sergei Petschnikoff
Production Manager
Francesco Maria Piave
Composer
Walter Plunkett
Men's Costume
Lorenzo Da Ponte
Composer
Giacomo Puccini
Composer
Friedrich Wilhelm Riese
Composer
Helen Rose
Women's Costume
Gene Ruggiero
Film Editor
Conrad Salinger
Orchestration
Douglas Shearer
Recording Supervisor
J. Frank Shugrue
Stills
William Snyder
Director of Photography
Georgie Stoll
Music Director
Ambroise Thomas
Composer
William J. Tuttle
Makeup created by
Giuseppe Verdi
Composer
George Wells
Writer
Edwin B. Willis
Set Decoration
Lothrop Worth
Camera Operator
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Film Details
Also Known As
Kiss of Fire, Serenade to Suzette, This Weekend Is Yours
Genre
Musical
Music
Romance
Release Date
Sep
29,
1950
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 37m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Color (Technicolor)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8,716ft
Award Nominations
Best Song
1950
Articles
The Toast of New Orleans
After their success together in That Midnight Kiss (1949), MGM hoped to make Philadelphia-born opera virtuoso Mario Lanza and Anchors Away (1945) star Kathryn Grayson into a new Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy duo, quickly putting them together again in this Cajun-spiced musical about the bon temps that rouler between a visiting opera diva (Grayson) and the crass yet alluring local Pepe (Lanza). Of course, everyone in this small fishing hamlet is a gifted singer and/or dancer, including Rita Moreno in an early role she later joked was one of many for which she employed her "universal ethnic accent". Lanza's once-in-a-lifetime voice is on exquisite display in the film's many songs, but off-screen he was already showing the signs of a destructive self-indulgence: long Chivas Regal-quaffing sessions with co-star David Niven, devouring entire pizzas by himself and alienating Grayson with his garlic breath, and, after one series of takes, grabbing Grayson's arms so forcefully the scripted slap she was supposed to bestow upon him turned into a closed-fist punch. Lanza made several more films before his demons overran him, but here he is young and powerful, with talent in full flower.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
The Toast of New Orleans
After their success together in That Midnight Kiss (1949), MGM hoped to make Philadelphia-born opera virtuoso Mario Lanza and Anchors Away (1945) star Kathryn Grayson into a new Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy duo, quickly putting them together again in this Cajun-spiced musical about the bon temps that rouler between a visiting opera diva (Grayson) and the crass yet alluring local Pepe (Lanza). Of course, everyone in this small fishing hamlet is a gifted singer and/or dancer, including Rita Moreno in an early role she later joked was one of many for which she employed her "universal ethnic accent". Lanza's once-in-a-lifetime voice is on exquisite display in the film's many songs, but off-screen he was already showing the signs of a destructive self-indulgence: long Chivas Regal-quaffing sessions with co-star David Niven, devouring entire pizzas by himself and alienating Grayson with his garlic breath, and, after one series of takes, grabbing Grayson's arms so forcefully the scripted slap she was supposed to bestow upon him turned into a closed-fist punch. Lanza made several more films before his demons overran him, but here he is young and powerful, with talent in full flower.
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles for this film were Serenade to Suzette, Kiss of Fire and This Weekend Is Yours. The film marked the motion picture acting debut of composer and conductor Richard Hageman. According to a December 1949 Daily Variety news item, Armando Agnini, who staged the opera sequences in the film, worked for the Metropoitan Opera. Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn's song "Be My Love" was nominated for an Academy Award.
