***SPOILERS*** After his TV show debut in the summer of 1952 Liberace or just plain Lee to his friends became such a show business phenomenon that it was a given that he'll soon hit the big screen and in no time at all replace John Wayne and Rock Hudson as the most popular male star in Hollywood. With Warner Brothers handing him a sliver platter two movie contract deal with no questions, in what Lee wants as a salary, asked his first shot at the big time turned out to be a remake of the George Arliss/Bette Davis 1931 tear jerker "The Man Who Played God" with Lee in the leading role as popular concert pianist Anthony Warrin. Warrin despite his phenomenal success as a popular pianist feels that something is missing in his life in not being accepted or appreciated, by the upper class blue nose crowd, as a world class artist, with the piano, of classic music. With him now being scheduled to do a gig at the world famous Carnegie Hall in New York City Warrin's dreams of becoming another Mozart Paderewski or Rubinstein are about to come true. Things also brake for Warrin in the romance department with pretty blond and well bread, or blue blooded, Linda Carter, Dorothy Malone, mistaking him for her as well as his former music teacher the world famous pianist Profossor Zwolinski, Otto Waldis! With love in the air as well as first sight Warrin fell in love with and proposed marriage to a shocked and happy Linda all within 24 hours after he met her!

With everything going gang-buster for that lucky stiff Warrin's luck suddenly runs out with him mysteriously losing his hearing while doing a concert at the Chicago Music hall! Faking it at first Warrin's disability soon becomes apparent to everyone and he's forced to retire from show business using the excuse that he broke his piano playing hand, or hands,in a skiing accident! Alone in his luxurious penthouse apartment with nothing to do Warrin learns to lip read with the help lip reading specialist Mr.Rojeck, Ian Wolf, so he can communicate with the outside world. Using a powerful pair of German Leica binoculars, used in WWII by Nazi U-Boat Commanders, Warrin spies on people from his penthouse terrace down in Central Park just to pass the time of day. It's then that he gets this bright idea to help those who need help without them knowing about it by lip reading what their problems are! This soon drives Warrin off the deep end in realizing that there are people, without the fame success and money that he has, in this world with problems far greater then his own! Something that the so full of himself Warrin was totally unaware of!

It's an absolute scream to watch Liberace trying to show any kind of genuine emotions as he becomes suicidal and tries, by jumping off his 15th floor Central Park penthouse terrace, to kill himself over both his deftness and the sufferings in the world at large. Instead of looking like he's suffering from a deep depression and anxiety of the ills of the world around him Liberace in fact looks more like he's going through "Cold Tukey" in trying to kick a serious and near fatal drug or alcoholic addiction. Sweathing profusely with his eyes almost popping out of his head looking like he's being crushed to death by a 30 foot python or anaconda you just can't help cracking up watching him instead of feeling bad or sorry for the guy in what terrible suffering, all the way to the bank, Liberace or Anthony Warrin is going through in the film!

***SPOILERS*** There's also the scene where Warrin's hearing suddenly recovers when one evening he hears his cuckoo clock chiming at the stroke of midnight waking him up. As you would expect an excited Warrin rushes to the piano banging on the keys waking up his live in manager Sam Dunn, William Demarest, and keeping him as well as the entire building awake all night long with his non-stop piano playing. Soon like before in the movie Warrin's hearing goes blank again and he now concedes to get the operation that ear specialist Dr. Eubank, Edward Platt, recommended for him earlier in the film. In the end Warrin does get his hearing as well as piano playing career back on track but lose Linda, who by then just about had enough of him, to fellow music lover and rookie composer ex-GI Howard Ferguson, Alex Nicol. But fear not the film does have an happy ending with Warrin's true love his long suffering personal secretary who was secretly in love with him Marion Moore, Joanne Dru, showing up just in time to give the movie a happy ending! That's at the conclusion of his gang bang standing room only concert performance at Carnegie Hall, where besides playing the piano Warrin also does a tap dance routine, where Marion was in attendance to start up a long sought romance as well as play beautiful music together with him!

Failed movie vehicle for piano-playing Liberace, then a popular fixture on American television. Based on Jules Eckert Goodman's play "The Man Who Played God", story concerns a grinning pianist (guess who?) finding himself caught in a love-triangle between two ladies (Joanne Dru and Dorothy Malone),but real tragedy is about to strike. Beautifully-photographed but hopelessly hokey showcase for Li just doesn't cut it in the melodrama department. For the fans who still mourn his act, there IS an onslaught of piano-playing here, and that may be enough to satisfy those in the requisite moony-eyed spirit. As for Liberace's acting...well, let's just say as an actor he's a terrific piano-player. *1/2 from ****

"Sincerely Yours" was completely savaged in the entertaining book "The Official Razzie Movie Guide" and as a man who actually likes to occasionally see schlocky films, I really looked forward to seeing it. Unfortunately, I think the book oversold how awful the film is. While it sure has problems and ended up ruining Liberaces's planned film career, it isn't like the film is terrible, either. It's just a dull and overlong film with some nice music and occasionally decent plot elements.

In this film, Liberace plays a guy who is pretty much Liberace. He's extremely popular and his concerts are very well attended. However, the guy has two struggles--he would like to see seen as a SERIOUS musician and he is alone and needs the love of a good woman. Believe it or not, back in the 50s a lot of folks bought into this notion--that WHEN Liberace meets the right girl he'll finally settle down and get married. I think the naiveté of this is perhaps why the Razzie folks thought the movie was so silly--along with how unconvincing the film was in making him out to be a great ladies man (in the film TWO women want the pianist). However, before he can achieve his dreams, he's struck down by Hollywood deafness--the sort of thing that MIGHT be curable but you'll never know until the finale! In the interim, instead of just feeling sorry for himself, Liberace spends his time learning to read lips* and eventually uses his money and energy to make the lives of others better. I actually liked this part of the film. What I didn't like were not only the unconvincing romances but the way overabundance of songs. I honestly think Liberace played at least a dozen tunes-- and soon this really caused boredom to set in and I couldn't wait for the film to end. Overall, this is a silly, schmaltzy and inconsequential film that isn't horrible and actually occasionally manages to entertain...a bit.

*One of my daughters is deaf. Learning to read lips (called 'speech reading') is NOT easy and no one can do it nearly as accurately as the folks on TV and in movies--no one. Plus, seeing Liberace watching people in the park to eavesdrop on their conversations just seemed creepy--especially since most of the time, he was staring at little boys. Icky, icky--and a lot more troubling that any of the other rumors folks were murmuring at the time about his sexuality!