After The Great Caruso (1951) was a hit, Mario Lanza assumed MGM would be starring him in more projects of equal prestige. Not so - producer Joe Pasternak wanted to give the opera star a hint of the everyman by casting him as an army private who romances the vocally gifted Bridget (Doretta Morrow, veteran of The King and I on Broadway), who is the sister of his sergeant in command (James Whitmore). (The fact that such a picture would be cheaper to produce than another operatic period piece helped Pasternak cozy up to formidable MGM president Dore Schary, too.) Distressed by a project he felt was beneath him, Lanza binged on alcohol and comfort food before shooting began (despite orders from on high to slim down before the cameras rolled, his weight noticeably fluctuates from scene to scene in the final print) and harassed his co-star Morrow until she stormed out of a recording session. But the end result on screen can be summed up by The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther: "It's really Mr. Lanza's singing that should and will attract attention to this technicolored film."

By Violet LeVoit