The Great Waltz (1938)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Julien Duvivier

Writers:

Gottfried Reinhardt (story)
Samuel Hoffenstein (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 November 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Your beating heart,your pounding pulse will tell you it's the most exciting musical love story ever told!

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Infidelity | Self Sacrifice | Party | Bank Clerk | Nobility

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Luise Rainer	...	Poldi Vogelhuber
Fernand Gravey	...	Johann 'Schani' Strauss II (as Fernand Gravet)
Miliza Korjus	...	Carla Donner
Hugh Herbert	...	Julius Hofbauer, Music Publisher
Lionel Atwill	...	Count Anton 'Tony' Hohenfried
Curt Bois	...	Kienzl
Leonid Kinskey	...	Dudelman
Al Shean	...	Cellist
Minna Gombell	...	Mrs. Hofbauer
George Houston	...	Fritz Schiller
Bert Roach	...	Vogelhuber
Greta Meyer	...	Mrs. Vogelhuber
Herman Bing	...	Otto Dommayer
Alma Kruger	...	Mrs. Strauss
Henry Hull	...	Emperor Franz Josef

Also Known As:

The Life of Johann Strauss (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

104 min | West Germany:97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #4613)

Filming Locations:

Chino, California, USA

Company:

Loew's

Trivia:

Toscha Seidel, the Russian virtuoso violinist, was hired especially to dub the solos on the soundtrack for Johann Strauß (Fernand Gravey) and began a new career working as a concert master at MGM and other studios.

Quotes:

Johann 'Schani' Strauss II: I don't care who sings this! Vienna will sing this!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Dallas: The Great Texas Waltz (#12.24)" (1989)

Soundtrack:

There'll Come a Time

The Great Waltz is Wunderbar

Perhaps the number one Hollywood musical film of all time. "Gorgeous Korjus" was coined and used by Louis B. Mayer to promote her film career, which understandably would be short. Not only is she gorgeous in GW but turns in an excellent acting performance which drew an academy award nomination. Her acting role rivals or exceeds consummate actress and two-time academy award winner, Luise Reiner. Displaying the temperament of a real primadonna, Miss Korjus turns on her good and bad sides when you least expect it. Vocal waltzes are extremely difficult to sing and Korjus with her coloratura soprano does admirably. Frenchman Fernand Gravet is believable as Strauss (as far as the film is believable) and ably supported by the likes of Lionel Atwill and Hugh Herbert along with many others, few of whom have a Teutonic accent, but we still have a romantic view of old Vienna. It is not a factual biography, which is stated at the beginning of the film, but there are elements of truth in the composite of Strauss the Elder and Strauss the younger as performed by Gravet (Strauss the Younger was a womanizer and while married actually had a liaison with an opera singer, among others). The Vienna Woods segment is pure joy. Strauss playing Tales from the Vienna Woods on his violin and Carla Donner singing in accompaniment's, their whirling dancing, ending up on the ground, where Strauss goes no further and wistfully admits "Carla, I'm married." The audience, I think, expects a tantrum from Donner at this revelation, but she gracefully takes it in stride and fools us once again with her unpredictability! This scene, to me, was the high point of an exceptional film of the type we shall never see again.