That Midnight Kiss [1949] [DVD]

Not the best of MGM's musicals, but noteworthy as the feature debut of Mario Lanza, the star who brought opera to the movies and became the first tenor since Caruso to achieve massive worldwide popularity.

This is virtually his biography, as Philadelphia opera patroness Ethel Barrymore has problems with the male lead of daughter Kathryn Grayson's stage debut, before Grayson discovers that local truck driver Lanza can more than hold his own with an aria.

That Midnight Kiss is glossy nonsense, helped along by co-stars Keenan Wynn and the wonderful Jules Munshin. Director Norman Taurog later worked regularly with a great fan of Lanza, Elvis Presley.