Le chant du Danube

This is a fairly entertaining pre-War cheaply made British musical comedy which sadly fails in a number of ways: it was the 3rd film with Jessie Matthews and Edmund Gwenn, and definitely the least satisfying of them; it was Hitchcock directing a non-thriller with his heart not in it; Hitchcock and Matthews didn't get on, and it showed in his screen treatment of her - Britain's top singing and dancing star at the time; and a ridiculously fictitious plot. Hitch thought it was the worst film he'd ever made and Jessie thought it was "perfectly dreadful".

It was an adaptation of a London musical stage play which apparently ran for over a year: Johann Strauss II played by Esmond Knight wants to be a composer like his father, I (Gwenn), who is arrogantly dismissive of his talents throughout. I'm afraid I won't see Gwenn as Santa quite the same again. II eventually succeeds spectacularly with the help of Countess Fay Compton (was she ever anything but elderly and wistful?) and barmaid girlfriend Matthews - incidentally Robert Hale who played her father was her real-life father-in-law. Jessie was as usual good to look at (personally speaking) but unfortunately didn't really get to sing much, and Hitchcock was excellent as usual but didn't get to show off much. Most people will be disappointed with the latter, but for myself it was with the lack of Jessie's beautiful singing voice in what was after all billed as a musical, and with her name over the title. On the other hand, Hitchcock seemed to be mining the One Hour With You stylistic vein a lot of the time albeit in a cheaper but still pleasant British way, there were some nice sets and of course there was Louis Levy's orchestrations for The Blue Danube to admire when it arrived. The less said about how II was supposed to have composed it here, the better!

It's a pleasant enough 76 minutes for someone like me who isn't a Hitchcock completist, but probably will be a real chore if you are.

Biography of the Strauss boys set in Vienna in mid 19th century. The stars are Jessie Matthews as Rasi, the daughter of a confectioner, Esmond Knight as Strauss Jr., and Edmun Gwenn as Strauss Sr. Also notable are Fay Compton as the countess, Frank Vosper as the count, and Robert Hale as the confectioner.

What makes this film notable is that the director is Alfred Hitchcock. Alma Reville is listed as one of the writers.

From the opening scene, the film is unusual. The film starts with a closeup of a fire team racing to a fire in a confectioner's shop. The scene is obviously fake because of the background and the fake horses. The actors jostle about and spout wisecracks. At the scene of the fire, we see a madhouse of onlookers and employees. The employees are taking tables and chairs out of the shop and setting them up in the street to avoid losing customers. The confectioner is in a panic as he tries to save a huge wedding cake. Smoke billows from the building but upstairs there is music and singing as Strauss and Rasi go through one of his compositions. The sequence is manic, full of pratfalls and sight gags.

At a dress shop across the street the countess is trying to buy a dress but the models are all watching the fire. When a bumbling fireman carries Rasi down a ladder, she tears her dress off and must run to the dress shop for clothing. She meets the countess who is asking to meet the man playing that piano. Thus begins the triangle.

Almost as a subplot, we get the adversarial relationship between the father and son since the film really focuses on the "love story." Although Hitchcock always thought this film his worst, there is much to enjoy. The pacing is brisk. The dramatic story is lightened by comic episodes. The direction is very fluid (if not florid) like the music, and the music is terrific, especially the climactic "Blue Danube" number.

Also notable are the sets. You would expect very fussy, claustrophobic rooms filled with furniture and ponderous draperies but the sets are mostly spartan, white, softly lit. In one scene the countess sits having coffee in a huge white room before huge curtainless windows. Not what you'd think of for 1850s Vienna.

The acting is uneven, with Matthews and Knight overacting and Gwenn and Compton underacting. The comic scenes are very broad and involve pratfalls into cakes, slapping, falling down stairs, etc. Yet it all seems to work.

Matthews hated this film and Hitchcock. England's premiere musical star of the time doesn't get to dance and only warbles here and there. She definitely takes a backseat to the Strauss music, but she's at her prettiest in this film. Esmond Knight's character reminded me of Marius Goring's manic composer in THE RED SHOES right down to the hair cut. Gwenn, for all his billing, gets less screen time than Matthews, Knight, and even Fay Compton.

Jessie Matthews hated this film and if you're foolish enough to watch it, you can understand why. The story, the script and the characters are so utterly frivolous and light that they'd get blown away by your snoring.

It was the brainchild of a theatrical impresario called Tom Arnold who thought turning a popular musical into a film would be a good idea....it wasn't. By persuading Gaumont-British to back him, he secured the services of Jessie Matthews but the role she was given was woefully insubstantial. It didn't give her any opportunity to show her comedic skills let alone her singing or dancing - she did not enjoy this at all.

Not only was her role dreadful but her co-star had zero charisma and worst of all she didn't get on with the director. She was a huge star and knew it. Hitchcock with about 20 films under his belt believed that he was the best director in the country but having just been 'let go' from BIP, the industry in 1934 didn't particularly agree. There was therefore a huge ego battle going on here which didn't make for a happy set.

Although it's not good, it's not entirely awful. Despite the insane underutilisation of Miss Matthews, ('the dancing divinity' or 'the diva of debauchery' depending on your choice of 1930s newspaper), it is reasonably well made as of course you'd expect from Hitchcock but you can tell that nobody's heart is in this. She didn't want to make it, Hitchcock didn't want to make it and although Gaumont-British were a wealthier and classier studio than Hitchcock's former studio BIP, from the look of the cheap shabby sets, it looks like even G-B didn't want to make this either.

This is neither a Jessie Matthews film nor an Alfred Hitchcock film. Being the most beautiful girl in the world she still looks lovely but she's not really Jessie Matthews and because Hitchcock wasn't involved in the writing, there's none of his characteristic dark humour. When it tries to be funny it is just embarrassingly silly. Avoid this!

British romantic drama from Gaumont and director Alfred Hitchcock details the events surrounding the 1866 writing of "The Blue Danube Waltz" by Johann Strauss II (Esmond Knight). Strauss lives in the disapproving shadow of his famed father (Edmund Gwenn), and the younger man hopes to make a name for himself with his own compositions. He's cheered on by baker's daughter Resi (Jessie Matthews), and he also catches the eye of Countess Helga (Fay Compton). Also featuring Frank Vosper, Robert Hale, Charles Heslop, Hindle Edgar, and Marcus Barron.

Hitchcock described this film as "the lowest ebb of my career", and it's arguably the least-shown of his sound films, and the only one that I had not seen until now. It's not as bad as I expected, but it won't find too many fans, either. Despite some of Hitchcock's directorial flourishes popping up now and then, this movie still resembles many British productions of the time, which all seem to have a certain indefinable remoteness to them. Perhaps it's the lack of close ups or a certain flat lighting technique or just the style of acting, but I find myself rarely becoming engaged in the onscreen action. As I said though, I didn't find this movie to be a complete bore or waste of time, as some of the shooting is inventive, the costumes and sets are good, and there's the music, of course.

This musical comedy must be one of Hitchcock's most obscure movies (not even reviewed in Leonard Maltin's guide until the latest edition!). It has very little dramatic interest, and not much in the way of notable visuals either, but the production does have a certain opulence (including some enormous sets), and of course the Strauss music is a pleasure to listen to, particularly in the concert sequence. Apparently Jessie Matthews was one of Britain's biggest musical stars around this period, but you'd never know it from this picture - she sings only once and never dances. ** out of 4.