Oh... Rosalinda!!

I really wanted to "like" this but I can't. Sorry.

the film is totally uninspired by the miscasting and the actors inability to lip sync to the songs!

If only they had achieved something amazing - by getting Orson Welles and Bing to sing! But they didn't and that's the rub.

The colour is a delight and the music a delight but it can't work until someone spends a fortune re-editing this and applying CGI to the lips syncs? Some awful acting doesn't help. What is Quayle like? Awful.

Surreal, not even taking into account the operetta part. Slightly subversive, too. Normally, surreal and subversive are a great mix, but this one just keeps tripping over itself. I kept waiting for it to get off the ground, and in the process sort of enjoyed the weirdness. But it's not a good movie by any measure.

Think Dr. Caligari crossed with the worst Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland musical you've seen (ok, with better music, but is anyone really _that_ into Strauss?). Or maybe The Third Man on a tremendous amount of ecstasy, except that's way too kind.

My wife thinks Mel Ferrer's performance might have been an inspiration for Jim Carrey's acting style. That's the kind of quality to expect.

Have fun!

Powell & Pressburger take Strauss' "Die Fledermaus" and update it. I'm not familiar with the original work, but from what I can tell most of the plot points remain intact. The updating comes in the form of bringing it to postwar "Four Power" Vienna (like THE THIRD MAN) with some light commentary on the occupation. My problem with opera is quite similar to my problem with Shakespeare. The story is being advanced in a manner I find difficult to comprehend. Sometimes it's alright, but whenever there's a large chorus singing, it all sounds like mush to me. And some of the ladies go into that ridiculously high register where all words turn into "aaaaaaEEEEEEeEeEeEeee!!!" Still, when I couldn't make out the words I managed to get most of it from context, and the movie is fun musical comedy. The farce is well-constructed and the performances are very enjoyable (including Michael Redgrave being far more flamboyant than I would have ever imagined him). It's not brilliant, it's not stunning, it doesn't stick with you, but it's a good little romp with some nice tunes.

Though their 1940s output is unanimously celebrated by critics and audiences, the Powell/Pressburger collaborations of the 1950s are often forgotten or outright dismissed. I have not seen all of them, save for Gone to Earth and Oh... Rosalinda!! but I was surprised by how good both of them were. No, they're not on the same transcendent heights as the likes of The Red Shoes or The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (heck, precious few movies are), but they are good in their own right and still lovely to look at.

Oh... Rosalinda!! may be a bit of an acquired taste for some people. The aesthetic is very flat and artificial, stagey even, much like the more elaborate Tales of Hoffman but with apparently less of a budget. It's also a bedroom farce, so if you're not much for that kind of comedy, you may find it hard to get into the swing of things. I myself care little for such comedies, but I rather enjoyed this one, mainly due to the strength of the performers. Anton Walbrook is great as the black market dealer who manipulates everyone, showing a great penchant for comedy he rarely got to express in his English language projects. Ludmilla Tcherina is playful and sexy as the woman everyone wants. Mel Ferrer is a bit overdone, but he's not bad at all.

No great classic, but Oh... Rosalinda!! is worth at least one glance from Powell-Pressburger devotees.

We are big champagne fans and this movie was sponsored by a big French champagne outfit and it couldn't have been more appropriate. The post WWII Vienna setting was marvelously bubbly and clever. Where better to set such an international tale of deception and decadence.

With the recent US occupation of Iraq, this film may be newly relevant. After all,Oh ... Rosalinda! was a plea for an end to the occupation of Austria. The party was over in the mid50s. In another ten years, perhaps, there might be a wonderful remake set in Bagdad.