Melba

Melba (1953)

The most magnificent musical spectacle of them all!

Rural Australian Nellie Melba becomes an opera star in 1900s Europe and the United States.

Date of release
1953-08-07
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 52m
Genres
Drama, Music
Director
Lewis Milestone

Casting

Interesting facts

Melba is a 1953 musical biopic drama film of the life of Australian soprano Nellie Melba, written by Harry Kurnitz and directed by Lewis Milestone for Horizon Pictures, marking the film debut of the Metropolitan Opera's Patrice Munsel.

Production

In January 1952, upon completion of the Melba story treatment by Harry Kurnitz, producer Sam Spiegel and his attorney flew to London with the script in-hand to acquire film rights for her story from Melba's estate.

In May 1952, Spiegel reported that the film was to be shot on locations in Australia and Britain with Patrice Munsel cast as Nellie Melba.

Upon release of the information, representatives of the J. Arthur Rank organization expressed surprise, as they had themselves been planning a film about Melba. They had hoped to get Marjorie Lawrence for their own film and, when unable to do so, had even considered using actual recordings Melba's voice dubbed over that of an actress. They decided to put their plans on hold until they could find a suitable singer/actress for the lead role.

In June 1952 Spiegel announced the film would be made as the first in a four picture deal he had with United Artists. Munsel's casting was announced in July.

One of Spiegel's early choices for director was Charles Vidor. In July 1952, Spiegel flew to Paris to speak with him.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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