Rating: 
Summary: A pretty good show
Review: Although as a movie, this film is no great cinematic achievement, and as a biography is even worse, the film does boast a fine roster of production numbers and cameo appearances which save the picture and make it watchable. Based on the life of legendary composer Jerome Kern (Robert Walker, in an excellently executed performance), the film follows Kern's friendship with composer Jim Hessler (Van Heflin), first stage hits, marriage, and the first theatrical performance of Kern's legendary "Show Boat". Kern passed on shortly before the film's completion, and as a tribute to him, the cameo performers make the very best of Kern's classics: a very young Angela Lansbury is very fetching in a delightful Cockney number, "How D'Ya Like To Spoon With Me?" June Allyson is sweet and sunny with the Egyptian-set "Cleopatterer". But the cameo performance that steals the show is Judy Garland, as singer Marilyn Miller, particularly charming with "Look For The Silver Lining", dressed in dowdy clothes, washing dishes. (Look for Garland's big song-and-dance to Kern's "Who?"- Garland was four months pregnant!) Lena Horne is divine with "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man of Mine" and "Why Was I Born", Van Johnson and Lucille Bremer do a great song-and-dance duet to "I Won't Dance", Dinah Shore is charming with "The Last Time I Saw Paris", and to top it all off, Frank Sinatra performs a great big bessello "Ol' Man River" at film's end. A wonderful film, if nothing else, for its outstanding production numbers.
Rating: 
Summary: MANY EARLY TALENTS ALL TOGETHER
Review: Can't remember seeing the early days of so many major talents in one place before. Storyline, acting etc. are OK - - but the real payoff is the wealth of music, dance and acting scenes with big and to-be-big stars. Nifty!
Rating:
Summary: A great movie musical!
Review: For a great and entertaing film this is it. It has the great songs of Jerome Kern. It is a beautiful film. Robert Walker is perfectly cast as Jerome Kern. He really shows his brilliant acting abilities in this film. Van Heflin is wonderful in it too. I highly recommend it and would give it ten stars if I could. They sure don't make films like this anymore. It's very moving to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Kern Bio-Pic Offers Big-Time Musical Moments
Review: Forget the Hollywood-ized pseudo-biography of composer Jerome Kern and simply sit back, relax, and enjoy one stunning musical production number after another, featuring the likes of Lena Horne, Angela Landsbury, Judy Garland, and Lucille Bremer.
Rating:
Summary: Till The Bad DVD Editions Roll By
Review: I don't know why this little jem of a film slipped through the fingers of MGM and became "public domain" but it has and it's not to easy to find a decent copy. However, the Goodtimes Entertainment DVD is as close as you can get to an actual studio release. I've purchased two different off the wall company prints of this film and it seems Goodtimes is the best. It's really quite a shame that "Till The Clouds Roll By" will most likely not receive the same grand DVD treatment the rest of the MGM classics of that time such as "Meet Me In St. Louis", "For Me And My Gal", "The Harvey Girls", to name a few. I feel that "Clouds" ranks right up there with all the rest of the great MGM musicals and deserves a better fate than languishing in DVD bargin bins! If you love movie musicals as well as musical theater (the subject of the film Jerome Kern was an early pioneer of American Musical Theater) then you will love this film. Just remember to find a copy of the Goodtimes Entertainment DVD edition. Goodtimes has put together a nice presentation for a low price. The color is a bit faded but, the picture is clear and it's a clear digital transfer. The sound is Mono but, considering the elements they had to work with it's good. There are no special features other than scene selections. This may be the only decent edition of this film we ever get so buy it before it goes out of print!
Rating:
Summary: You have to like musicals
Review: I for one love musicals, especially when they are done as well as this I have been a movie devotee ever since I was old go to movies, and of course I grew up in this era, and as the country boy said" If'n I had my DRUTHERS, I sure would Druther go back! ! Van Heflin and Robert Walker did a 5 star job. The story fit like it belonged there and that they belonged in it. The story covers a lot of time from the early days of Jerome Kern, up tp Judy garland, Frank Sinatra,...yes, I don't mind sying that effort, was an effort ofthe first water. One more evidence that a good movie can be made with out any mention of sex, or bad language. Good, for as long as I can remember, has never needed a crutch.
Rating: 
Summary: Judy is stunning in her production numbers!
Review: I have this movie in my Judy collection and while she has a rather small part in the overall plot, part of it is because she was 5 months pregnant with Liza at the time. She never glowed more beautifully, however, in her cameo appearances and musical numbers. She plays screen star Marilyn Miller in this life and times account of beloved composer Jerome Kern. Tony Martin and Kathrine Grayson perform an outstanding duet of "Make Believe" from Jerome Kern's Show Boat. The movie is a little slow and runs a little long as the plot and life of Jerome Kern builds, but it's a great family picture and shows many diverse talents from Hollywood's hey day.
Rating:
Summary: Good typical MGM musical at a bargain price
Review: I just finished watching the Good Times DVD version of this prototypic MGM musical of the 1940's and was pleaasantly entertained. Unlike a lot of cloudy, muzzy nth generation prints of films that have slipped into the public domain, this one seems darn close to the master. No aplogies need be made for the sound or color. The movie seesm to be complete without edits.
This biopic of composer Jerome Kern (Show Boat) is pure fiction and dated slush in equal measure, but you've got to hand it to the man, he could write a song. The storyline frames a number of his best. Robert Walker (Strangers on a Train) is earnest as Kern, but it is singers like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Lena Horne and Dinak Shore than give the film its best moments. In fact, a lot of MGM contractees show up to support Kern, including Angela Lansbury signing and dancing, Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Gower Champion, Van Johnson, June Allyson and others.
Ok, some of the production numbers border on the kitschy, and the dialogue is pretty pedestrian, but the music still charms. The MGM production values were pretty high, aimed at capturing crowds returning to theatres at the end of World war II..
They don't make them like this anymore, and they never will.
Worth a look and a listen.
Rating:
Summary: Colorful and musical.
Review: I own both a VHS and a DVD copy of this film, and oddly enough, the VHS tape yields a much clearer, more colorful picture! Go figure. The film is a wonderful study, not of a biography proper (it's often reported that the script was highly fictionalized), but of a top-flight execution of a musical. And if you're any kind of musical afficionado (and over 30), you'll enjoy the innovative ways this film stuffs so many stars into one motion picture- from Judy Garland as real-life Kern star Marilyn Miller, to the various stage pieces featuring Angela Lansbury, Ray McDonald, June Allyson, Tony Martin, Kathryn Grayson, Lucille Bremer, Van Johnson, and a BRUNETTE Dinah Shore singing "The Last Time I Saw Paris." And five of the singers- Grayson, Martin, Virginia O'Brien, Lena Horne, and Caleb Peterson- are magnificent in a mini-production of "Show Boat." (Interesting sideline: though it is only a small cameo, the gorgeous Horne is obviously performing the role of the mulatto singer Julie- a role she hoped to play in the actual "Show Boat" film. She was even approached by Broadway producers to do a revival of the show, but MGM would not allow it. Her striking essay of "Can't Help Lovin' That Man-" in her own fair skin and piercingly beautiful eyes- makes one wonder what might've been.) Blink and you'll miss Gower Champion dancing with Cyd Charisse. Sneeze and you'll miss Esther Williams signing autographs.
Rating:
Summary: Inspired Musical Numbers Will Appeal to Musical Fans
Review: Jerome Kern died while MGM's bio-pic TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY was still in the pre-production stage--and while Kern had been more than willing for MGM to tell all, his estate was considerably more reticent. In order to avoid any legal issues, MGM scrapped their original intentions, wrote up a fluffy script that bore little similarity to Kern's life, and crammed the film with every musical star available in a non-stop series of drop-dead-stunning production numbers. The result may be extremely bad biography, but leading man Robert Walker and co-star Van Heflin keep the sentimental story moving--and the musical numbers are piled on top of each other so quickly that one doesn't really question it. The film opens with a lengthy montage from SHOWBOAT, Kern's innovative masterpeice, that features knock-out performances from Lena Horne, Katheryn Grayson, and Virgina O'Brien and then quickly seques into a series of star-solos that feature June Allyson, Gower Champion, Cyd Charisse, Angela Lansbury, Dinah Shore, and Frank Sinatra.Along the way we are also treated to an extended cameo by Judy Garland, performing "Look For The Silver Lining" precisely as Marilyn Miller played it on stage and singing "Who?" to a staircase of chorus boys--which Garland was said to find most amusing, considering that she was pregnant at the time. Also notable is Lucille Bremer in the role of Robert Walker's stage-struck ward; although her star quickly faded, Bremer is an attractive performer and shows her talent for song and dance here by teaming with Van Johnson for a spirited version of "I Won't Dance." TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY will not appeal to most casual viewers, for the story line and script are much too weak. But musical fans will love this one all the way from Lansbury doing a Cockney "Spoon With Me" to Sinatra belting out "Old Man River." As a Jerome Kern song-and-dance fest, the movie can't be beat, and it should have a place in every musical fan's collection.
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