For the First Time

One wonder if some future scientist saw the film and invented cochlear implants to bring the film's main plotline to reality. Tony Costa tries to sing to a young girl, but she cannot hear him, only can lip read. He decides to search for a physician hunting for a cure. Risky but it seemed to work...but over exuberance almost caused the success to reverse. This film had lustrous music, special scenes, (Ave Maria by Shubert as well) and Pagliacci in make-up...who could ask for much more. Mario Lanza's gave his heart to the music, ever word sung as if it was his last...which was prophetic. He passed thereafter.

This was a good story, but also a sad one, as it was Mario Lanza's last film, and hearing that wonderful voice, and knowing that soon it would be silenced (at least here on Earth) makes you want to cry, while smiling at the simple love story that's a backdrop for all the scenes and songs from famous operas. Johanna von Koczian was sweet as the deaf young woman who falls for the opera star but won't marry him until she can hear him sing. Zsa Zsa Gabor plays the kind of role she's famous for, yet here she has a heart of gold behind all that glitter and glamour. The movie's filmed on Capri, with all its breathtaking scenery, and there are funny moments along with the poignant ones. If for nothing else, it's worth watching to hear Mario sing (especially "Come Prima"!) So check it out!

Opera star Tonio Costa (Mario Lanza) is late to his own performance as he sings out in the rainy streets for his adoring fans. He tries to escape to the Italian seaside. Christa (Johanna von Koczian) is a sweet local deaf girl. I imagine this is a great film for fans of Mario Lanza. He's not the greatest actor, but he is able to coast on his natural charms. I get how he falls for a deaf girl, but she should be less impressed with his singing. She should not be a fan. It's a missed opportunity for him to chase her romantically. The only recognizable face for me is Zsa Zsa Gabor. It's amazing that she's apparently been doing the same accent since then. This is perfectly harmless and the scenery is awesome and I'm sure his fans loved the singing.

source: For the First Time

From the beautiful backdrop of Capri, to the enormous, passionate ringing voice of Mario Lanza, this is a must see movie for one and all. Mario is in wonderful voice, and looks every bit the part of an opera singer hiding incognito. The scene where he sings "Come Prima ("For the First Time") is a showstopper, and you can almost feel the warm sunlight in your face and the salt air in your lungs as you listen to the one true voice known as Mario Lanza, singing to the swooning girls and admiring men. Don't miss this one!

For the First Time is a very beautiful movie worthy of a Lanza. We saw it when we were beginning to see the difference between the birds and the bees.¨For the first time, for the first time, I'm in love...¨ After that, all of us pre-teeners were trying to do a Lanza. Ít is extremely hard to find this kind of movie nowadays. The hundreds of million dollars needed to make a movie like this exceeds all our expectations, and the results often leave us frustrated, disgusted and disappointed. Maybe I'm down with Norman Desmond Syndrome, but I prefer the movies of the yesteryear, like this one. It is said that before one kicks the bucket, even if one is sick, one looks good. Eeriely, this is so with Mario Lanza. He gives his all here, and unsurprisingly so. After the decade of the fifties, gone forever is the Golden age of Hollywood when art is done for art's sake. Then came the Beatniks and the Hippies and the GenXers. Suddenly we are left with performers who challenge the lucidity of Ms. Anita Bryant and the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Our so-called movie moguls nowadays sadly lack the will to tap the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, José Carreras or Andreas Bocelli. O Sole Mio seems to belong to another dimension. Ubinam gentium sumus?

Released two months before his demise, For The First Time proved to be Mario Lanza's last film. While it's not the young Lanza in his prime, booming out Be My Love, it's still a good film to go out on. It's a Cinderella type fairy tale of a concert singer/Prince Charming who meets and falls for a deaf girl and spends his time looking to cure her affliction. One thing For The First Time has going for it are those European locations, especially the fabulous Isle of Capri. Capri is one of those places in the world where you cannot film anything that won't be beautiful. Ranks right up there with the Grecian Isles and Hawaii in that regard. Paramount would also use Capri around the same time for the Clark Gable-Sophia Loren film, It Started In Naples also with gratifying results. The deaf girl who Lanza falls for precisely because she can't hear him and isn't groupie material is played by German actress Johanna Von Koczian who's had a distinguished career in German cinema to this day. She's billed as 'introducing Johanna Von Koczian' but she's only being introduced here to American audiences. Walter Rilla as the hearing specialist who operates and cures her and Hans Bohnker as Von Koczian's uncle, are also from the German film industry. Most of the rest of the cast is Italian. Of course with the exceptions of Kurt Kaszner as Lanza's manager and Zsa Zsa Gabor as Zsa Zsa under any name. Mario too is Mario under any name. He always was himself because the audiences came to hear him sing, they didn't expect Hamlet from him. For The First Time has a good mix of classical and popular songs. Highlights are Come Prima which Lanza introduced and which sold a few records for him on RCA Victor Red Seal label and O Sole Mio which he sings at Sandra Giglio's wedding. Lanza was in training at the time of his death on October 7, 1959 to finally go into grand opera. A hint of what he could have done is in the arias he does from Otello and the triumphal march from Aida which is a great piece of DeMille like spectacle in opera. He's just fabulous in both. Back in the days of The Odd Couple I remember an episode where Felix says to Oscar he wants the triumphal march from Aida played at his funeral as his casket is paraded seven times around the cemetery before the planting. As an opera lover, I'm sure Felix must have seen For The First Time and was influenced. If he heard Mario Lanza sing it, it sounds like a plan.

Musically speaking, Lanza's best movies are undoubtedly The Great Caruso, Serenade and For The First Time. The Great Caruso is the most accessible of the three, and also has the best production values. Serenade is a much darker movie, and contains Lanza's most impressive dramatic singing. It does, however, suffer from an uneven script (see my review if you're interested). Although a much lighter tale, For The First Time is similarly flawed. It contains the most perfectly balanced musical programme of any of the tenor's seven movies, but at the same time suffers from a poorly written script and some sloppy dubbing. As with The Seven Hills of Rome the preceding year, the original script was apparently a good one, but somewhere along the way a sugar coating was added to the story. The result was a highly sentimental tear-jerker with a good deal of banal dialogue. It's to Lanza's credit, then, that For The First Time transcends its limitations and remains a watchable - and often moving - swansong from a musical giant. It helps that Lanza, just a year before his death, was in superb voice throughout - with one exception that I'll get to in a minute. Here his voice retains the baritonal depth of the Serenade period, but if anything his tenor is even rounder that it had been three years earlier. This is a voice of extraordinary depth and power. The high notes are faultless and retain the brilliance of old, but equally importantly his singing is more controlled and sensitive than in some of his boisterous earlier appearances. It must have helped that the operatic selections were recorded (and filmed) at the Rome Opera House, thus providing the tenor with a more artistic atmosphere than Hollywood could ever have afforded. The Vesti La Giubba scene is extremely moving, both visually and vocally. Free of distracting histrionics, this is a very different rendition from his slightly hammy earlier performances of the aria. If you never thought Lanza could top his magnificent rendition from The Great Caruso, then be prepared for a big surprise. This is the perfect Canio voice - dark, rich and powerful - and the pathos in Lanza's voice as he sustains the climactic High A on the word "infranto" is all but overwhelming. The other operatic selections are equally impressive - with the exception of the strained La Donna E Mobile that begins the movie. The Otello Finale, Grand March from Aida, and trio (E Voi Ridete) from Cosi Fan Tutte present an amazingly varied programme, and I can think of no other tenor capable of pulling off both the drama of Verdi and the lightness of Mozart with such effortless panache. Among the lighter selections, Lanza also sings appealing versions of Come Prima (For The First Time), O Sole Mio, Schubert's Ave Maria, a Bavarian Drinking Song (Hofbrauhaus Song), and the pretty-though-brief O Mon Amour. There is also a tantalising snatch from Grieg's I Love Thee, with Lanza's gleaming tenor ringing out in all its glory. Physically, he often appears tired, and the unhealthy bags under his eyes betray his failing health. Nevertheless, he looks terrific in certain scenes, and unusually for the tenor his relatively slim appearance remains more or less consistent throughout the movie. Aside from the movie's vocal strengths, what really saves the film is the tender rapport between Lanza and his delightful co-star, Johanna Von Koczian. Their love for each other, quickly though it develops, seems convincing, and there are moments in which it is hard to believe that Lanza is only acting. Corny moments aside (and there are plenty of them), For The First Time is a poignant farewell to Lanza, and a vocal feast at that.

Although burdened with an overly mushy script, this film still bursts with Mario Lanza's talent and joie de vivre. Fortunately he is allowed to sing some great opera arias as well as more popular songs such as "Pineapple Picker" and "The Bavarian Beer Song." Schubert's "Ave Maria" is the topper.

The sad irony of mario lanza, making a film called for the first time, and it was his very last film. He died the year after filming this. It's a love story between tonio (lanza) and christa ( johanna von koczian). He's a world renowned singer, but she's deaf, and can't hear his singing. They want to get married, but christa refuses to get married until her hearing is repaired. Zsa zsa is gloria, tony's friend. And we assume, sometimes lover. Her role kind of felt penciled in. The patron of the arts. The running gag is that gloria tells every man that he's the one she has been waiting for, all her life. Zsa zsa and her sisters had been in hollywood for about fifteen years at this point, and were known for being seen in high society. Lots of singing by tony. It's pretty good. Comes to a crashing halt when tony has a performance while christa is in the hospital. He finally gets to the hospital, and then sings some more. Jeez. Fans of the opera will probably appreciate it more. Directed by rudolph mate, who was nominated for five oscars, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944,1945. Interesting. They were all for cinematography. Story by andrew solt. According to wikipedia dot org, he owns the entire ed sullivan show library, and worked on several projects with jacques cousteau.