To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

Actor Ray Mangano certainly put his heart and soul into his latest film role. After all, he’s playing his real life father, retired nightclub singer Tony Mann, in the new short film "Heart & Soul."

"It's a love story. It's about a guy who was a singer in that style of the late 1940s and 50s. He's was climbing the ladder of success and battling between fame, family and then along the way, he started getting sick with multiple sclerosis," explains Mangano.

Tony Mann, who was born Joe Mangano, says it’s bittersweet to watch the film because his wife died of cancer at such a young age. But he still enjoys singing to this day.

Ray, who sings one of the songs in the film, says he grew up idolizing his dad and wanted to be a singer just like him. But his dad told him to take up acting instead.

"Because it's very difficult. I went through hell singing. I wanted to be a big star, and I came so close," says Mann.

The film was a family affair with a $15,000 budget and everyone pitching in. In the film, Ray uses his dad’s real life scrapbook for reminiscing alongside the likes of Sam Cook, Gerry Vale and Al Martino.

"I said to my Dad I said, 'Yes you didn't make it, so to speak, like these gentlemen did, but the point is you were the first to have a movie made about you,'" says Mangano.

The movie was shot at the Gotham Comedy Club on West 23rd Street, minus the smoke of a 1950s club.

"We weren’t allowed to smoke in here and I wanted to get that look but we couldn’t because there's all these laws now and it would set off the alarms," says Mangano.

Smoke aside, it’s a serenade to the music, the era and of dad.

"Heart & Soul" is showing through the end of the month on Time Warner Cable's "On Demand."

For more information on the film, email heartandsoul@gmail.com.