Humoresque (1946) - Everything works in Negulesco's music melodrama classic

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Passionate romance - and a violin - is promised on this poster for Jean Negulesco's Humoresque

A stubborn male violinist with big dreams and talent to back it up gets discovered by Mrs. Wright, an alcoholic woman of wealth, whose marriage is platonic. But can he have her as his patron and mistress for the long run?

Humoresque is written by Zachary Gold (Top Man (1943)) and Clifford Odets (Winter Journey (1962, TV movie)), adapting the same-titled 1919 short story by Fanny Hurst (Back Street (1931)), and directed by Romanian-born American master filmmaker Jean Negulesco (Singapore Woman (1941)), whose 6th feature it was.

It is a formidable film, which mixes the juicily erotic and the keenly humorist with strongly melodramatic lines and wonderful music, - and a great venerable air around it. You'll hear pieces of Dvorák, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Grieg, Bach, Prokofiev, as well as Gershwin and Cole Porter, in the luxurious musical side to the romantic drama, making it an absolute treat for music lovers. The photography (by Ernest Haller (The Boy and the Pirates (1960))) is outstanding; the technical expertise surrounding the film is likewise.

Joan Crawford (When Ladies Meet (1941)) is legendary, intense and awe-inspiring, and John Garfield (The Fallen Sparrow (1943)) is just as intense and tough here. Oscar Levant (The Cobweb (1955)) is incredibly funny and eminently believable in his piano scenes. J. Carrol Naish (The Texan (1958, TV-series)) and Ruth Nelson (Shock (1946)) as the young musician's parents are flawless. 

Humoresque is one of the undying melodramas, and a truly refined film to boot. SPOILER Something to ponder over: Is Mrs. Wright's suicide in the end propped up too much in the cinematography? Or does it simply point towards her larger-than-life quality?

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.1 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly somewhere between 3.3-3.7 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.61-1.76 times its cost)

[Humoresque premiered 25 December (New York) and runs 125 minutes. Hurst's story was first adapted by Frank Borzage with the same title in 1920. Crawford was paid 167k $ for her performance, though IMDb also lists 500k $ as her salary, which looks like it must be a mistake. Shooting took place from December 1945 - April 1946 in New York and California. The William Shaefer Warner Bros. ledger recorded a 2.2 mil. $ North-American gross for the film, but Variety reported a 2.6 mil. $ North-American rental in 1947. The two numbers account for the uncertainty in the figures above listed. The international gross was listed as 1.1 mil. $. Despite the small gross compared to the considerable cost, the film is curiously described as a theatrical success. It was nominated for 1 Oscar: For Best Music - Drama/Comedy (Franz Waxman (Elephant Walk (1954))), lost to Hugo Friedhofer for The Best Years of Our Lives. Negulesco returned with Deep Valley (1947). Crawford returned in Possessed (1947); Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice: The Radio Play (1947, voice) and theatrically in Body and Soul (1947). 4.4k+ IMDb users have given Humoresque a 7.3/10 average rating.]

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Grand Hotel (1932) - Loose star vehicle with some charm and two magnificent dames

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The stars align in this splashy poster for Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel

At Berlin's Grand Hotel several exciting people reside; the presumptuous diva dancer, the free stenographer, the baron, who has lost everything and steals from everybody; the stupid factory owner, and the dying worker, Kringelein.

Grand Hotel is written by William Absalom Drake (Strange Justice (1932)), adapting his own same-titled 1930 play, which in turn was based on Vicki Baum's (Die Welt ohne Sünde (1923)) novel Menschen im Hotel (1929). It is directed by Edmund Goulding (Sun-Up (1925)).

Written as an ensemble star vehicle, and a spearhead for this particular discipline in films, Grand Hotel is without a larger, unifying plot. It can seem to be splashing a bit in different directions. There is for instance rather a lot of talk about a merger, which seems highly unimportant for the stories. There is a good amount of drama tied to death, but the perishing accountant character Kringelein is somehow too thinly sketched as a character; has the man no family, friends, and no apparent history?

Grand Hotel still retains a good deal of irrefutable charm as the major production it was. It especially lives on due to the fascinating, vivid portraits drawn by its two big female stars as two very opposite-directed characters: Greta Garbo (Eros (1926)) as the tempestuous diva, and Joan Crawford (Today We Live (1933)) as the romantic 'dove' stenographer.

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 750k $

Box office: 2.5 mil. $ 

= Box office success (returned 3.33 times its cost)

[Grand Hotel premiered 12 April (New York) and runs 112 minutes. Producer Irving Thalberg had bought the rights to the novel for 13k $, and contracted Drake again after success on the stage for a film version. Shooting took place in MGM's Culver City studio in California. The film won the Best Picture Oscar, the first and only film to date to win the award without getting nominated in any of the other categories. The ledger of producer and 'fixer' Eddie Mannix details that the film made 1.2 mil. $ domestically and 1.3 mil. $ elsewhere for a 2.5 mil. $ gross. It was remade as the successful Week-End at the Waldorf (1945). Goulding returned with Blondie of the Follies (1932). Garbo returned in As You Desire Me (1932); Crawford in Letty Lynton (1932); and John Barrymore (Counsellor at Law (1933)) in State's Attorney (1932). Grand Hotel is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.58/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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