This Heart of Mine - production number from "Ziegfeld Follies", 1945

 

One of my very favorite things. Much of the film "Ziegfeld Follies" is a botch, but this wonderfully over the top, divinely excessive sequence is really quite magical. Directed by Vincente Minelli and designed by the truly unique Tony Duquette, it's a perfectly plotted out "dream of romance"; I find this exquisitely scored and choreographed, visually stunning miniature completely charming.

The song is by Harry Warren and Arthur Freed, and the beauty of Warren's tune more than compensates for Freed's rather clumsy lyric.

Maybe it was the music,

Or the glamorous sky of blue.

Maybe it was the mood I was in,

Or maybe it was really you, really you.

This heart of mine was doing very well.

The world was fine as far as I could tell.

And then quite suddenly I saw you, and I dreamed of gay amours;

At dawn I wake up singing sentimental overtures.

This heart of mine is gaily dancing now.

I taste the wine of real romancing now.

Somehow this crazy world has taken on a wonderful design.

As long as life endures, it's yours, this heart of mine.

And as long as this "endures" on YouTube: