This is a movie I’d avoided seeing for years but finally bit the bowstring. Filled with the warhorses of classical music popular in the ’40’s, Isaac Stern, who did the actual playing, and not John Garfield, makes the listening worthwhile. It’s said to be Joan Crawford’s finest role, but the over-the-top last fifteen minutes with a Stokowski-esue rendition of “Tristan and Isolde” featuring a piano(!!) bombarding us nearly makes her performance forgettable. This is turning into a film review, but it’s my way of cleansing my brain of watching this pretentious mess last night. Ok, am I being too rough on this sacred cow? Here’s a major critic’s take on the movie:
Bosley Crowther in The New York Times of December 26, 1946 observed “[T]here is certainly nothing humorous about the lachrymose Humoresque . . . . It is rather a mawkish lamentation upon the hopelessness of love between an art-dedicated violinist and a high-toned lady who lives for self alone. . . . [T]he Warner Brothers have wrapped this piteous affair in a blanket of soul-tearing music which is supposed to make it spiritually purgative. . . . The music, we must say, is splendid—and, if you will only shut your eyes so that you don’t have to watch Mr. Garfield leaning his soulful face against that violin or Miss Crawford violently emoting, . . . you may enjoy it very much.”
The scene below is an excellent montage of shots with an orchestrated backdrop by the great Franz Waxman.
