Evening star., 1938-11-25

low these three, the casting is uni
formly praiseworthy.
1t is the spirit of the man who
wrote Tales of the Vienna Woods"
"The Blue Danube" Die Fielder
maus" and so many other enduring
items which the film attempts to
capture. The authors of the script
have created a kind of lyric to suit
the pattern of his music rather
than choosing to follow a literal
transcription of his life. In doing
so, they have acted wisely even
though the result is conventional
love triangle-the tale of a great
artist in love with another great
artist, with both of them frustrated
in the end by the great woman who
is the wife of the composer.
In the role of the latter, Miss
Rainer returns to her erstwhile
stature as an actress worthy of
academy awards. After she gets
past the initial coquetteries of a
girl in love, she takes on the stature
of a woman more than worthy to
be the wife of such reckless genius
as Strauss. 1t is Miss Rainer's
meter to express humility and the
nobility of sacrifice and she does it
once more as no other actress seems
capable of doing.
X
The incident of THE Great
Waltz" is plentiful and dramatic.
1t expresses not merely the compli-
Gated love life of the composer but
illuminates that part of his ener-
gies devoted to making music and
making life difficult for the poll
ticians of his state. He is shown
in his battles to form his own Or
chestra, to become the peoples musi-
clan, to convince the ruling au-
thorities that they are a dumb, self
ish outfit. and to discover the an
swer to the tormenting compleXity
OF his own nature. Herr Strauss
may have composed in three-four
time, but he did not live in it, for
that is hardly the tempo of a man
who tWeaks the nose of a Franz
Josef, leads rioters, denounces the
gentry and falls in love with two
great women.
M. Julien Duvivier has made
nice blend Of the action and the
music in the life of Strauss. His
direction gives nice pace to the
story which moves from musical
interlude to musical interlude with
never a wasted moment
In addition to the two leading
ladies, the cavalcade is frightened
by numerous other acting perform
ances. M. Gravel, who learned to
sing. play the violin and conduct
in order to give realism to his role
is thoroughly credible Strauss.
He is the complete master of those
lightning changes of mood which
switched the composer from ecstasy
to torment, from art to politics,
from blond to brunette and gener-
ally from this extreme to that one
Among the others who stand out
in the large cast are Hugh Her.
bert, subdued but still very funny
Hugh Herbert, who plays hard
bitten music publisher; Henry Hull
as a kindly Franz Josef; lionel
Atwill as nobleman who lost the
love of Prima Donna Korjus with
none too much nobility.
The singing strength of THE
Great Waltz" is not limited to the
magnificent vocal gifts of Miss Kor-
jus, nor to the imposing stature of
the orchestras which play so many
episodes of the story. Nine. AL
bertha Rasch has mustered an
army of ballet dancers to round out
the Interpretation with a bigness
and beauty that are altogether and
always very impressive.
Miscellaneous credits are due a
great many other persons for the
great charm of The Great Waltz"
but they are incidental to that
which belongs to Herr Strauss, who
composed the original.