Humoresque (film)

Infobox Film
name = Humoresque


caption = Original theatrical poster
director = Jean Negulesco
producer = Jerry Wald
writer = Novel: Fannie Hurst Screenplay: Clifford Odets
Zachary Gold
starring = Joan Crawford
John Garfield
music = Franz Waxman
cinematography = Ernest Haller
editing = Rudi Fehr
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = flagicon|USA 25 December 1946
runtime = 125 min.
country = USA
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:23857
imdb_id = 0038622

"Humoresque" (1946) is a Warner Bros. feature film starring Joan Crawford and John Garfield in an older woman/younger man tale about a violinist and his patroness. The screenplay by Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold was based upon a novel by Fannie Hurst. "Humoresque" was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Jerry Wald. The film received an Academy Award nomination.

Plot and cast

Young, ambitious violinist Paul Boray (Garfield) meets Helen Wright (Crawford), a socialite in a loveless marriage with an aging husband (Paul Cavanaugh). Helen is a self-centered, adulterous woman who uses men as sexual toys and is baffled by the strong-willed and independent Boray. She falls in love him and fosters his career, introduces him to prominent musicians, and helps him to success. He falls in love with her.

Boray's mother (Ruth Nelson) disapproves of his involvement with a married woman and advises separation. Boray hopes for a solution to their difficulties but Helen realizes her dissolute past can only taint his future. She listens to Boray play Wagner's "Liebestod" on the radio and then walks to her death in the nearby ocean —- in her jaded mind, the only logical resolution to their dilemma.

Cast includes Oscar Levant as Sid Jeffers, J. Carroll Naish as Papa Boray, Tom D'Andrea as Phil Boray, Peggy Knudsen as Florence Boray, and Joan Chandler as Gina Romney. Robert Blake (future star of "In Cold Blood" and the television series "Baretta") plays Boray as a boy.

Production notes

The movie is a remake of the 1920 silent film "Humoresque" (directed by Frank Borzage) and was Crawford's first film after her Oscar-winning role in "Mildred Pierce", and her third for Warner Bros. after being dropped by MGM. Costumes for "Humoresque" were designed by Adrian and Bernard Newman.

Music

Franz Waxman orchestrated and conducted the score which features selections by Antonín Dvorák and Richard Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee", Bizet's "Carmen", and Edouard Lalo's "Symphonie Espagnole". Isaac Stern served as musical advisor, and the film includes close-ups of his hands playing the violin.

Reception

Lawrence J. Quirk in "Screen Stars (Retrospective Review)" commented, "Humoresque" is undoubtedly Crawford's finest performance...Her timing was flawless, her appearance lovely, her emotions depthful." [Quirk, Lawrence J.. "The Films of Joan Crawford". The Citadel Press, 1968.]

Bosley Crowther in the "New York Times" of 26 Dcember 1946 observed, "...there is certainly nothing humorous about the lachrymose "Humoresque,"...It is rather a mawkish lamentation upon the hopelessness of love between an art-dedicated violinist and a high-toned lady who lives for self alone...the Warner Brothers have wrapped this piteous affair in a blanket of soul-tearing music which is supposed to make it spiritually purgative...The music, we must say, is splendid—and, if you will only shut your eyes so that you don't have to watch Mr. Garfield leaning his soulful face against that violin or Miss Crawford violently emoting,... you may enjoy it very much." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE0D61E3BE333A05755C2A9649D946793D6CF "New York Times" Review] . Retrieved 13 September 2008.]

Awards and nominations

Franz Waxman received an Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Cultural influences

"Humoresque" was parodied on the television show "SCTV" in 1981. The Joan Crawford role was played by Catherine O'Hara as Crawford, while the John Garfield role was played by violin virtuoso Eugene Fodor. [ [http://sctvguide.ca/episodes/sctv_s42.htm SCTV Episode Guide] ]

The film is also said to have inspired the beach sequence in the video of Madonna's "The Power of Goodbye", directed by Matthew Rolston.

ee also

* Joan Crawford filmography

References