(104 min) Released 1938-11-04
Directors: Julien Duvivier, Victor Fleming (uncredited), Josef von Sternberg (uncredited)
Stars: Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravey, Miliza Korjus.
Albertina Rasch ... dances by / ensembles by
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030202/
Watched online, good print.
A very good collection of Strauss waltzes, well played. Good dancing (waltzes, of course, with a little ballet), well photographed; predates Vincente Minnelli's madness waltz of Madame Bovary ('49) by more than a decade. The speed and whirling must have been dizzying compared with minuets. Much of the music is joyous.
The biographical aspect of the film is not to be trusted. They open with a title card declaiming any accuracy; they were aiming for the spirit of the man, not the facts. Well, did he almost leave his wife? Did he have an affair with an opera singer? Who cares! Let's get rid of the attempt to get Luise Rainer her 3rd consecutive Oscar, and bring on more dancing.
MGM, dir. Duvivier, Fleming, Von Sternberg; 6+
