The Great Waltz (1938)

Directed by Julien Duvivier, with a screenplay by Samuel Hoffenstein and Walter Reisch that was based on a story by Gottfried Reinhardt, this fictionalized biography-drama of Vienna's Johann 'Schani' Strauss II features Fernand Gravet (aka Gravey) as the prolific composer, who is perhaps best known for his waltz The Blue Danube aka "On the Beautiful Blue Danube".Several of Strauss's compositions, waltzes and operas, were given lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II for Gravet and/or Miliza Korjus as opera singer Carla Donner, from Budapest, to perform. The operatic Korjus earned a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for her film debut which was also (effectively) her only movie role. Luise Rainer plays Strauss's delicate yet not too fragile wife Poldi (née Vogelhuber); she apparently tolerated her husband's indiscretions like his affair with Carla, depicted in this film. Cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg won his first Oscar (on his first nomination) for his swirling camera work and Tom Held's Editing was also nominated.Quirky Hugh Herbert plays Strauss's music publisher Julius Hofbauer, Lionel Atwill plays Count Anton 'Tony' Hohenfried who covets Carla, Leonid Kinskey plays Dudelman, Herman Bing plays the proprietor Otto Dommayer who first gave Strauss a chance to play his music in public, Alma Kruger plays Strauss's mother (Poldi's understanding mother-in-law), Henry Hull plays Franz Josef, who would become Emperor of Austria after the uprising during which this film's story shows he'd encountered Strauss, Sig Rumann plays the banker who fires the future composer at the beginning of the story, and Christian Rub plays the coachman who (in this movie, at least) helped Johann and Carla compose the recognizable "Tales from the Vienna Woods", also during the Austrian revolution.

The New York Times has spoken long of Julien Duvivier. Does he deserve a retrospective? Yes, he indeed does. A good place for the English speaking world to begin is the 1938 'Great Waltz', with a grand cast of mainly European actors: Luise Reiner, Fernand Gravet, Miliza Korjus, Herman Bing, Sig Ruman, and the usual American character actors like Hugh Herbert and Leonid Kinsky and the British Lionel Atwill, who once played the lead opposite Marlene Dietrich in von Sternberg's 'The Devil is a Woman'. Is it too much to say in this sentimental, romanticized Hollywood rewriting of Strauss' life, with music and song and dancing and period costumes that it had something that we find in the UFA films Nazi Germany churned out with the likes of Zarah Leander. Grand fluff to distract the masses from the Great Depression and daily hardship and the gathering of war clouds in Asia and Europe. The year 1938 and the idealization of Vienna is an anachronism, for it was that very year that Hitler's troops annexed Austria to Germany. And the pogrom against Jews and leftists and anti Nazis began with the outcome we tragically came to know. It was Luise Reiner's first film, and she won the Oscar for best actress, which she well deserves as Poldi Strauss' wife. The contralto Korjus added great glamour and the argent clarity of her voice as the other woman. Gravat infused his Strauss with the fantasy of the musical genius he was, as the film had his inspiration say for Tales of the Vienna Woods and Blue Danube come into his mind as though they were generated spontaneously. And then Hollywood enlisted the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II to make sure our toes were tapping to the rhythm of the waltz...making everything so Gemutlich and coating the story with more sugar than necessary. Almost 78 years later, it's a grand, but silly film to watch.

This picture is mainly a showcase for the magnificent singing and trilling abilities of Gorgeous Korjus, although I wish she would have done more singing than trilling. That mischievous grin she often has during the film is captivating. The opening credits imply that the only three real characters in the film are Strauss, his mother, and Franz Josef (maybe Dommayer). They were merely used to develop this fictitious story about Strauss. There are a few tidbits of truth in it. Strauss Senior did want his son to be a banker, and there was a Dommayer establishment and an Austrian revolution in 1848.Strauss was married three times, but only one ended in divorce, so if he was a rake, he didn't marry and dump.I was disappointed that the wonderful tenor voice of George Houston (Fritz Schiller) was not used more in the film, and it is sad that his career did not advance more successfully before he passed away much too early.

A very long time ago, I gave up on Hollywood being accurate with biographies let alone bios of composers! So, tonight I sat down to watch TCM's Guest Programmer by a REAL operatic diva, Renee Fleming first choice. I just cannot believe that I have lived 51 years and have never heard of this movie or even seen a snippet anywhere! In just the first exciting music sequence I was witnessing a miracle! I remember so well when the millennium's Moulin Rouge came out a few fuddy-duddy friends of mine called it outrageous because of its frenetic pace! (Apparently, they had never seen THIS movie which was made in 1938 not in 2001!) The frenetic pace of the SUPERLATIVE cinematography alone is worthy of one viewing of this miraculously beautiful movie! All of the principal players were just so good...sure this is an old-fashioned way of acting - so what! (I tell you, some reviewers don't have any idea about the history of acting and film by the way they so trash older movies and their "quaint" ways.) Oh yes...and the music, the music, THE MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!! What a glorious discovery! I thank Renee, Robert, TCM and Charles Nelson Reilly (wherever he is) for recommending this movie to Renee! If you don't like this - then you need medical checkup quickly!