A Song to Remember

One of the most successful filmed biographies of the 1940s, A Song to Remember alleges to be the true story of Polish composer Frederick Chopin. Actually, it has about as much relation to truth as a Heckle and Jeckle cartoon, but with such gorgeous creatures as Cornel Wilde and Merle Oberon in the ...more

Like almost every Hollywood biopic of a musical figure, A Song to Remember raises the question, "Why did they bother to claim it was based on a real person?" Even by Hollywood standards, the liberties taken with reality are excessive. Audiences at the time didn't care, flocking to see a picture with a love story tinged with patriotism (albeit of a foreign sort). Modern viewers may not be so willing to forgive, not because they resent the historical inaccuracies, but because the newly created ...more