The Helen Morgan Story is a 1957 American biographical film directed by Michael Curtiz starring Ann Blyth and Paul Newman. The screenplay by Oscar Saul, Dean Riesner, Stephen Longstreet, and Nelson Gidding is based on the life and career of torch singer/actress Helen Morgan, with fictional touches liberally added for dramatic purposes. Months before being released into a feature-length film, The Helen Morgan Story was produced as a live television drama on Playhouse 90, with Polly Bergen as Morgan. Helen Morgan begins her career as a Chicago carnival dancer. She catches the eye of... fast-talking, double-dealing Larry Maddux, whose promotion catapults her to fame as a Broadway performer in Show Boat and a headliner in her own nightclub. Morgan anguishes over her romantic relationship with Maddux and one with Russell Wade, a wealthy, married attorney. When she realizes the caddish Maddux merely has been using her to support the upscale lifestyle he has come to enjoy, she turns to drink. She loses the bulk of her money to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Wall Street Crash of 1929, hits rock bottom, and is hospitalized in the alcoholic ward in Bellevue.
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| Release date: | 1957 |
| Directed by: | Michael Curtiz |
| Runtime: | 118 Minutes |
| Genre: | Musical, Biography |