1h 45min | Comedy, Music, Romance | 5 November 1948
Director: Preston Sturges
Stars: Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee, Lionel Stander
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040919/
Watched online; ok print, a little blurry.
Not as horrible as I remembered. Of the 3 fantasies, only 1 is a brutal murder. And when RH gets home and tries to execute any of the preparations for his fantasy, it goes horribly and hilariously wrong.
I miss having Sturges' stable of favorite actors. But this is Fox, not Paramount.
Per Soundtracks, the 3 classical pieces performed at the concert were:
- Francesca da Rimini, Opus 32 (1876), Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- Semiramide Overture (1823), Music by Gioachino Rossini
- Tannhäuser Overture (1845), Music by Richard Wagner
But I remember Wagner as the middle piece, so I have no idea whether Tchaikovsky was first or last without doing further research. Whichever was first was the murder score. Here's what Wikipedia says: Rossini, Wagner, Tchaikovsky.
I wouldn't call this a music/al. Yes, the (anti-)hero is a conductor, and we see him rehearsing and performing as such, and the choice of music suits each fantasy, but so should any underscore. No one in the cast is really performing music. No one sings or dances at all. The people playing instruments are not characters in our story (except briefly the cymbal player.) Just because someone rides a horse in Arizona doesn't make a film a Western. But I won't fight it.
These were far more interesting fantasies aligned with their music than those Disney films I've watched so far.
I can't recommend it because of the brutal nature of the fantasy murder. So the score is not 7.
Fox, dir. Sturges; 6+
