Excellent but underrated film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Up Front, Your Enjoyment of this Melodramatic Soap, with Punctuations of Dry Witty Patter, will most Assuredly Depend on Your Appreciation for, and Enjoyment of, Classical Music. Especially those that Feature the Violin. Because there is an Extraordinary Amount of said Music in this Starring Duo of Joan Crawford and John Garfield.Impeccably Shot and Likewise Scored, this has Garfield, some say Miscast although He does pull it off, as a Virtuoso Violinist Vacating all things in Life to the Mastery of His Instrument, as Crawford being His Benefactor wishes He would pay more Attention to another of His Endowed Instruments. They Both Deliver Solid and quite Stunning Performances.That is the Drama and it is Played Out Throughout and Strung Along until its Lengthy Running Time is Ended with the Heaviest of Soap Opera Conclusions. But Everything Manages to come Together in this Very Well Mounted, and Acted Picture. On a side note, Joan Crawford Looks Years Younger and quite Stunning, Surprisingly, when She dons Her Spectacles, although Her Ego probably prevented those Shots from Appearing in the Promotional Stills for the Movie, although there may be some out there that are not Screen Captures.

In the mid 1940s, Hollywood suddenly got the classical music bug and a whole string of lush melodramas were made, among them Columbia's 'A Song to Remember' (a risible biopic of Chopin with Cornel Wilde and Merle Oberon that, in one famous scene, gave Liberace his entire act), MGM's 'Song of Love' (a biopic of Schumann with Robert Walker and Katherine Hepburn) and 'Carnegie Hall' (a film about the famous hall with a dumb plot, stuffed with cameos from the musical greats of the day which is its chief value now).The two best films of the cycle however,'Deception' and 'Humoresque' were made at Warner Brothers, almost simultaneously, and starring those arch rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford respectively. Warners had by far the best and most interesting music department in Hollywood then, with (at this time) the three titans of film music working there - Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Waxman. Max superbly handled the Warner biopics of Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue 1945) and Cole Porter (Night and Day 1946), Korngold did a superb job on'Deception' and Waxman was in charge for this film.HUMORESQUE is a remarkable example of a film treatment that transcends its material. I won't repeat the many deficiencies in plot and story development that others have noted in their reviews here. They must have been clichéd even in 1946. What makes this film eminently watchable is the wonderful direction and cinematography that richly showcases a New York that no longer exists (and that was recreated in Burbank with aplomb!) and which presents the stars of the film in some of the most erotic and sumptuous photography of the era.Some shots must have taken hours to set up and light properly. Check out the moment at Helen Wright's party early in the film ["She's as complex as a Bach fugue"], where she meets Paul Boray for the first time ("Bad manners Mr Boray: the infallible sign of talent").After he insults her and launches into Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Flight of the Bumble Bee', she walks off in a temper, to the bar, to pour herself yet another brandy and as she holds the large brandy glass in her hand, Ernest Haller somehow allows us to see Boray directly through the glass with both Garfield and the glass in perfect focus. It's an astonishing shot, an obvious visual metaphor to be sure, showing how Mrs Wright wishes to control Boray from now on - but, what a stunning effect! Negulesco is equally inventive and manages some very deft combinations of sound-stage and location footage, especially at Wright's beach house. He also films the musical sequences wonderfully well, ably convincing us that Garfield is really playing, borrowing the trick (from 'Deception' being shot on adjoining stages) of using two real musicians out of camera shot for the fingering and bowing and even Isaac Stern himself for close ups of the left hand.The music is superbly performed and recorded, and the repertoire is well chosen. That applies not only to the classics. Peg La Centra's contribution, singing great standards of the 1930s and early 40s, is so evocative, one really wants to go to Teddy's Bar right away, for a large Martini. I bet he made a good one.The finale of the film borrows from that of 'A Star is Born' but elevates the whole suicide idea to an extravagant degree. According to an interview Negulesco gave late in life (that appears in a book called 'The Celluloid Muse') the idea to use the Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, (transcribed for violin), was actually Oscar Levant's and annoyed Franz Waxman, who had other ideas. In the end, he acquiesced and produced a stunning transcription that works extremely well as a concert work. Stern never commercially recorded it (unlike the Carmen Fantasie, another gem from this score) but his performance on the soundtrack is outstanding. What a pity no original optical track survives in the Warner vaults.With its ripe dialogue, a great supporting cast, some of the most voluptuous photography in any 1940s film and a fabulous musical soundtrack, HUMORESQUE repays repeated viewings and is a classic of its kind.It's the kind of film that could not be made today - but let us be grateful that once upon a time in Hollywood, there was the talent around that could make it, .....and very well indeed.

Humoresque (1946)This is a sticky, weepy melodrama, and power to it! If you don't like this sort of thing, or don't like classical music, you truly might still like the movie for its filming excellence, another product of the well-oiled 1940s Hollywood factory for movies. Photography by Ernest Haller, music by Franz Waxman (with assistance from Isaac Stern, who also did many of the close-ups of the violin playing), and direction by Jean Negulesco, who made a number of subtle, highly refined films.John Garfield plays his brooding part with proper broodingness, if not exactly psychological depth. It's appropriate, overall, and a kind of second fiddle to Joan Crawford, who plays her part from every angle, a great performance. Third in line is an impeccable Oscar Levant as sidekick and amazing (as always) pianist, playing his own parts. I've always loved his laconic humor, and the endless one liners he comes up with almost seem like his own. Right on.The plot will strike some people as old fashioned--a classical violinist played by Garfield, Paul Boray, comes from a lower working class family in New York and conquers the music world. With some complications, not least of which is Crawford's rich, troubled, but intriguing character, Mrs. Wright. It's all told in a giant flashback, beautifully rendered musically, and with a relentlessly beautiful camera leading us through it all. In many ways it's an amazing film, restrained mostly by a kind of plot that is tied up and packed with too much knowingness. If only they had let things hang loose, and let some twists take us truly by surprise, then the melodrama really would be melodramatic, which is my favorite thing, at least.

With the help of a neurotic patroness, a poor violinist achieves fame and fortune, but can their stormy relationship survive? Garfield reached the peak of his brief career, appearing in this, "Body and Soul," and "Gentleman's Agreement" in succession. He is well cast as the driven, arrogant fiddler. Crawford is also well suited to the role of the benefactor, going for the melodramatics as only she could. Levant provides hilarious comic relief as a wise-cracking pianist. Naish and Nelson are excellent as Garfield's parents. Much of the screen time is devoted to extended excerpts from some of the greatest music ever written for the violin, a treat for classical music lovers.