With a title like Words and Music, will it come as any surprise that the 1948 movie offers a musical? It shouldn't, as the film lives up to that billing.

Matters open in 1919, where Lorenz "Larry" Hart (Mickey Rooney) seeks a career as a song lyricist. This leads him to pair with music writer Richard "Dick" Rodgers (Tom Drake).

This new partnership doesn't succeed immediately, however, and the duo experiences career struggles. Hart and Rodgers also go through relationship issues with the women in their lives.

A major hit, 1942’s Yankee Doodle Dandy told the tale of composer George M. Cohan. Would Words exist without the earlier film’s success?

Probably not. Words definitely hopes to capture some of the magic that made Dandy so popular, though the success of some similar musical biopics also likely pushed Words to screens.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t. While Dandy delivered a lively romp, Words offers a tale that feels dull too much of the time.

Perhaps Words suffered from the fact that half of its lead subjects remained alive in 1948. Though Hart died in 1943 – spoiler alert? – Rodgers continued to work and thrive in 1948, at that point paired with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.

With Rodgers an active artist, those behind Words might’ve felt less room to offer a rich look at its subject. The film does come with a “sanitized” feel that means we get next to no actual drama.

Not that Dandy offered a “warts and all” look at Cohan, of course. Still, Words feels more like officially sanctioned product that exists mainly to promote the Rodgers brand.

Really, Words brings us a collection of musical performances around which the screenwriter constructed an extremely loose narrative. The closest thing we find to a thread stems from Hart’s perpetual loneliness/neediness.

If better explored, we could find a decent examination of Hart’s psyche. Instead, the movie does little more than play him as a comedic sad sack – until the tragic ending with his premature death, of course.

Granted, Hart’s personal affairs couldn’t be detailed in a movie circa 1948 – especially not given that his estate remained involved. Gay and an alcoholic, there’s no way Words could get into these domains.

Still, it could’ve offered something more substantial than this. The movie comes with hardly any real drama until its overwrought finale.

At least Rooney fares better than expected. I always found him to come across as annoyingly plucky, but he brings a bit of charm and depth to Hart.

Drake doesn’t do much with Rodgers, but he lacks a lot of room to explore. As noted, because Rodgers remained both alive and a major part of the culture circa 1948, there was little chance he’d get painted as anything other than a banal “good guy”.

In that vein, Drake suffices. He does what he can with the dull role.

In the end, the film barely cares about its lead characters anyway. It remains a project intended to showcase the Rodgers/Hart catalog.

This means the “story” grinds to a halt frequently to give us those musical production numbers. They almost never serve the plot and come across as completely extraneous most of the time.

Maybe Words should’ve just delivered a film that didn’t even attempt a narrative. Two hours of song and dance alone would work fine.

But because Words does aspire to tell a story, it flops. Slow and thin, the movie offers the most superficial look at its subjects imaginable.

Words and Music appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Warner Archive never seems to botch their Technicolor presentations, and this became another winner.

In terms of sharpness, the movie usually demonstrated nice delineation. Interiors could feel a bit soft at times, but the majority of the flick looked concise and accurate.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and no edge enhancement became apparent. Grain remained appropriate, and no specks, marks or other defects showed up at any time in this fresh presentation.

Colors were strong. Though the palette leaned a little brown, the hues seemed vivid and full when we got broader tones.

Blacks seemed deep and dense without too much heaviness. Shadow detail worked similarly well, as dimly-lit shots were appropriately clear. I found little about which to complain here and thought the Blu-ray brought the movie to life in a positive manner.

The DTS-HD MA monaural audio of Words appeared fine for its era, and speech was appropriate. The lines showed age-related thinness, but they were always perfectly intelligible and without edginess.

Effects became a minor aspect of the track, and they resembled the dialogue. Those elements lacked much depth but they were without notable problems.

Music was acceptable for its age, as the songs and score tended to be a bit tinny. There wasn’t much range to the music, but again, that stemmed from the limitations of the very old source. This became a perfectly adequate mix for its vintage.

As we shift to extras, we launch with an audio commentary from film historian Richard Barrios. He offers a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, historical elements and liberties, cast and crew, production notes and impressions of the film.

Barrios offers a pretty strong track, especially because he doesn’t seem totally smitten by Words. This means he becomes willing to criticize its flaws, especially in terms of it woeful adherence to facts. We find a fine overview in this engaging commentary.

A Life in Words and Music runs 20 minutes, nine seconds. The featurette brings notes from Barrios, historian Miles Krueger, Richard Rodgers’ daughter Mary, Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization president Theodore Chapin, friend Noel Taylor, Gene Kelly’s widow Patricia and actor Mickey Rooney.

The program discusses the real life of Lorenz Hart as well as aspects of the film. It acts as a nice antidote to the wholly sanitized biography of the movie, even if some of the material repeats from the commentary.

Next we find two Unused Musical Sequences. “You’re Nearer” features Perry Como (9:44), while “Lover” (3:44) showcases Como and the MGM Orchestra and Chorus.

“Nearer” gives us multiple takes of Como as he performs that song, while “Lover” offers an alternate opening to the film. Both seem pretty forgettable to me, though I suspect those who like the songs will find them more interesting.

We also get eight audio-only Musical Outtakes. These span a total of 19 minutes, 54 seconds.

Three come from Betty Garrett and two from Como. Another pairs Gene Kelly and Vera-Ellen and we find spots from the Blackburn Twins and Lena Horne as well.

I admit that because I don’t care for the style of the songs, these clips do little for me. However, fans will enjoy them.

A 1948 animated short called The Cat Who Hated People (7:03) shows a feline fed up with humanity. It offers a clever piece.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we conclude with Going to Blazes!, a live-action short about firefighters that mixes public service announcement and docudrama. It lacks much entertainment value on its own but it offers a fun look at the era.

Ostensibly a biography of composers Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, Words and Music instead becomes nothing more than a collection of musical performances. We get no depth and little charm in this superficial tale. The Blu-ray comes with positive picture and audio as well as a good collection of bonus materials. Not much about this film works.