Strano fascino

Hugo Haas's personal story and how it relates to this film is undeniably moving, but unfortunately the tale he created didn't have much of a spark to it, and if you're looking for noir you're probably barking up the wrong tree, this is a melodrama.

There is a certain pathos to the parallel stories involving acts of friendship which are accompanied by feelings, both in the rich woman (Mona Barrie) who sponsors the Czech pianist (Haas himself), and in his befriending the showgirl who's down on her luck (Cleo Moore). In both cases, it's the pianist who is the object of affection, but it's only with the younger women that he gradually begins to reciprocate. When she moves into his apartment, it's made clear he's like a grandfather to her, so that when they later marry we can be assured per the Production Code that their relationship was platonic beforehand, neutering what might have been wonderfully scandalous. The only flash of life for me was when she was swinging her hips in the kitchen, imagining her next musical number.

The film lumbers through the ensuing melodrama when unsurprisingly they don't just live happily ever after, but it all felt pretty staid, even the jealousy that develops when his career falters and she wants to return to work with a guy who looks like he's meant more to her than just a boss. This is one I liked seeing more because of Hugo Haas's life than the actual film, speaking of which, it was a nice touch to see his wife Maria Bibikov as Nurse Peterson towards the end.

I happen to find these Hugo Haas-Cleo Moore films entertaining.

Haas was a famous actor in his native Czechoslovakia until he had to flee the Nazis. Once in America, he became a director and a writer of B movies usually starring a gorgeous blond.

The gorgeous blond in this case is Cleo Moore. Paul is an up and coming concert pianist with a sponsor (Mona Barrie). One night he drops into a bar while a dance routine is in progress, and makes too much noise as far as the female dancer Margo (Moore) is concerned. So, similar to the last film I saw them in, she sets out to ruin his life.

She attends one of his concerts and instead becomes enamored of his music. Slowly but surely she wields her way into his life, and the two marry.

Margo goes along with Paul on his concert tour. It's highly successful until it abruptly stops due to a flooding situation. Unfortunately, in part thanks to Margo, Paul is flat broke. And he can't depend on his female sponsor to help him.

This is where the film for me goes off the rails. The guy hits the skids in like five minutes. If this were Van Cliburn, would the cancellation of one concert cause total destruction? Suddenly he's a big nobody. When Margo tries to work, he becomes jealous and possessive and refuses to let her, mainly because she's a flirt.

It goes on from there. Haas is a very warm actor, and he gives us a sympathetic if unreasonable character.

Moore does a good job and looks very glamorous. It's hard to decide if she loves Paul or was just using him all along. I think she does care about him, but they're both suffering.

Very nice ending.

A European pianist comes to America and falls for a dancehall girl. Written, directed, produced and starring Hugo Haas, who doesn't do a particularly good job in any of those roles. The script is lifeless and poorly written (including a second act twist that doesn't make a lick of sense), a lot of very prosaic drama that never catches fire. The camera-work is entirely uninteresting, and borderline amateurish. The performances and characterizations are bland. This is the first of seven films that Haas did with pin-up gal Cleo Moore, which is odd because here they have little chemistry together. The film is categorized as noir, but that seems like a stretch by any definition of the genre. Only in the final 10 minutes do we get any compelling plot material, and I will say I quite liked the ending. But otherwise it's a snooze.

The Czech actor Hugo Haas was a very popular film star. However, after fleeing the Third Reich he came to America and his career never reached the same heights. He mostly appeared in lower budgeted movies, though a few times he managed to do what he did in "Strange Fascination"...he directed, wrote, produced AND starred in it!

Paul (Haas) is a concert pianist who is unknown in America. Through the help of a rich American lady, he is brought to the States for a concert tour. While this works well, things start to go amiss when he falls for a trampy dancer, Margo (Cleo Moore). She is an expert at playing men and the middle-aged Paul hasn't a chance with her. Soon she is a major part of his life and he marries her. However, he isn't a rich man and is beholden to his sponsor, Diana (Mona Barrie). And, this sponsor soon abandons him when Paul makes a mess of his life. What's next in this tragic tale? Plenty!

Is this a fun film to watch? Nope. It's pretty tragic and sad. It is, however, well made I also appreciate how Moore's character is conniving but not 100% awful...and many of Paul's problems are self-created. It's not just a 'black & white' marriage. Overall an interesting character study but also a downer of a story. So, if you are feeling depressed, it's NOT a story for you!

A well directed, well written and sad film like this calls to mind the works of Max Ophüls and Stefan Zweig, it's the same kind of deep melancholy pervading the whole work, giving it a dimension of bottomless despair. Josef von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel" bringing Marlene Dietrich to Hollywood also comes to mind, it's the same kind of story, an accomplished master in his field is brought down by his own strange fascination with a cheap nightclub dancer, who actually originally is intent on bringing him down and sabotaging his concert, but instead she gets a kick out of his fantastic Chopin interpretations although she understands nothing about classical music, and he commits the mistake of taking her seriously and falling for her, making of himself a self-destructive idiot. Of course he is foolish, getting carried away by his jealousy of a woman who could be his daughter, but he just can't help it, and Hugo Haas makes a very convincing character of a great man at a loss against his own weakness. Almost all Hugo Haas' films have the character of a sad pathetic self-revelation and self-confession, and here he plays the lead in his own film of such a case. It is extremely sympathetic in all its pathetic deplorability, but the case is saved by the fact that he actually keeps smiling. And the music, like in all Haas' films, is absolutely exquisite in its blend of the highest quality and the lowest vulgarity.