Words and Music (1948)
Fictional biographical musical film about the songwriter partnership of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, following their early struggles, rise on Broadway, and later success in London and Hollywood. It presents their creative collaboration through a series of musical performances and dramatized episodes. The story also touches on Hart’s turbulent personal life and Rodgers’s romance with Dorothy Feiner.
Narrative Score
Full Plot & Ending Explained
Intro
Lorenz “Larry” Hart meets composer Richard “Dick” Rodgers through Herb Fields in 1919, and the two form a songwriting partnership that quickly becomes the center of the story.
Turning Point 1
At first, the pair struggles badly, and Dick even considers quitting music altogether to sell children’s underwear, showing how uncertain their careers still are.
Turning Point 2
Larry becomes drawn to singer Peggy Lorgan McNeil both personally and professionally, while Dick is pulled into his own romantic detours with Joyce Harmon and later Dorothy Feiner.
Turning Point 3
When a show by the duo is finally headed for Broadway, Larry expects Peggy to star in it, but the producer has already cast Joyce Harmon instead, leaving Larry disappointed and resentment growing around the production.
Turning Point 4
Dick’s pursuit of Joyce fails because she says he is too young for her, and then Dorothy refuses him because he is too old for her, reinforcing the film’s pattern of romantic frustration for both men.
Turning Point 5
Larry proposes marriage to Peggy, but she turns him down, and he sinks into a deep depression that becomes one of the film’s main turning points.
Turning Point 6
Even as hits and successful shows follow, Larry cannot enjoy the triumphs, his unreliability and absences strain the partnership, and his emotional collapse worsens after he buys a home in California and still falls back into melancholia.
Turning Point 7
After a period where he seems to improve once Judy Garland agrees to make a Rodgers and Hart movie, Larry’s condition deteriorates again; he is hospitalized after collapsing at a party, secretly leaves his bed to attend a Broadway revival of A Connecticut Yankee, watches briefly from the back, then exits in visible distress and collapses on the sidewalk.
Ending
Larry is hospitalized again and dies, and the film closes with a memorial benefit concert in his honor, where Gene Kelly introduces Perry Como, who sings “With a Song in My Heart.”
Cross-checked against Wikipedia and other public film references. View on Letterboxd ↗ The Narrative Score above is an experimental 5-axis rating, not a critic score.