They Shall Have Music

1939
Approved
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

517

YOUR RATING

Jascha Heifetz, Andrea Leeds, Joel McCrea, Gene Reynolds, and Zero in They Shall Have Music (1939)

Coming-of-Age Drama Family Music

A boy runs away from home and ends up at a music school for poor children. When the school suffers hard times, he enlists the aid of violinist Heifetz to save the day.A boy runs away from home and ends up at a music school for poor children. When the school suffers hard times, he enlists the aid of violinist Heifetz to save the day.A boy runs away from home and ends up at a music school for poor children. When the school suffers hard times, he enlists the aid of violinist Heifetz to save the day.

Director
- Archie Mayo
Writers
- Irma von Cube
- John Howard Lawson
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

517

YOUR RATING

Director
- Archie Mayo
Writers
- Irma von Cube
- John Howard Lawson
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total

Photos

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
In the movie, the newspaper account lists Jascha Heifetz's stolen violin as a Stradivarius. Heifetz used a Guarnarius in the picture and favored that violin in real life, but the producers felt that the name of Stradivarius would be more recognizable.

Goofs
The movie was spliced together from many takes, so there are numerous continuity holes, especially during the performaces.

Soundtracks
Andante cantabile
from "String Quartet No.1 in D, Op.11" (1871) (uncredited)
Written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
In the score during the opening credits
Reprised a bit by Gene Reynolds (violin)

User reviews15

Review

Featured review

10/10

music of the heart

You may have heard that music is the universal language. Nowhere is that more true than in Archie Mayo's "They Shall Have Music". It focuses on a troubled boy who runs away from home and joins a struggling music school. Things take a turn when Jascha Heifetz (playing himself) enters the scene.

The movie addresses poverty and funding for the arts. And in the process, we get to hear some masterful performances of works by the great composers (and of course, during the Barber of Seville overture, I pictured Bugs Bunny subjecting Elmer Fudd to all sorts of humiliation to the tune of the overture). No surprise that the children perform the music exquisitely, since Samuel Goldwyn hired the Meremblum Orchestra to star in the movie.

It might not be the greatest movie ever made, but I hope that it reminds people of the importance of the arts. Indeed, during WWII, Winston Churchill got asked if he planned to cut funding for the arts to redirect the money to the armed forces, and he said "Then what are we fighting for?" Alfred Newman's Academy Award-nominated score is like a character by itself. I definitely recommend this movie.