Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Lawbolisted Powerful

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

BasicLogic It was a great experience when I got the chance to watch this film when I was still a teenager, and now, I'm too old to remember a lot of things. This film also opened my eyes to see a brand new world of classic music. It was like a door suddenly opened and pushed me into an unworldly world and since then I never looked back and never could have accepted other forms of music. This film ushered me later to all the other great European musicians from A to Z, it also made me spend thousands of dollars buying albums. I've also lost lot of sleepless nights listening to the classic music; symphonies, operas, piano and violin concertos....and later fell into the charm of Mario Lanza's passionate songs and his movies. I finally have the pleasure and opportunity to watch this film again and still loved it so much like the first time I saw it.The world has changed into a very pathetic and absurd culture mixture since 1938. What we got now are endless horror movies, rap music, hip-hops, graffiti all over the place in every city of every country, tattoos, body piercing, drugs, porn, murders mysteries by most female writers, Marvel's superhero comic books adapted into computerized CGI special effect absurd films, Cold War, war against terrorists, trade wars, nuclear threats, global warming, devalued dollars, high price gasoline, battery powered auto pilot cars, a POTUS having affairs with porn star and lot of other high price prostitutes, iPhone and Samsung Galaxy Android smart phones....Garmin and TomTom GPS navigator devices phased out Thomas Guide maps...Are all of these showing us a better world? And how many movies in colors is really better than this elegant B&W film?

JohnHowardReid Copyright 31 October 1938 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. New York opening at the Capitol, 24 November 1938. U.S. release: 4 May 1939. Australian release: 22 December 1938. 10 reels. 104 minutes.COMMENT: Like "Gone With The Wind" this film is an extraordinarily successful collaboration — or rather amalgamation — of a number of disparate talents. That the film is so wonderfully artistic as a whole is due in no small measure to the talents of the producer, the skill of the cinematographer and the incomparable expertise of the film editor. Tom Held was deservedly nominated for an Academy Award, but was beaten by Ralph Dawson who also had the unenviable task of combining the work of more than one director. While the enforced union of Curtiz and Keighley on Robin Hood is both credited and well-documented, the unlikely trio of Duvivier, Victor Fleming and Josef von Sternberg on "The Great Waltz" has barely been hinted at. I had to go through MGM's files.When Duvivier signed for "The Great Waltz" (his first U.S. film), he informed MGM he had to be free by a certain date as he had prior commitments in France on firstly "La Fin du Jour" and secondly "La Charrette Fantome", both starring Louis Jouvet. Neither of these vehicles could be put off or delayed or even entrusted to another director as Duvivier had worked on the scripts himself and had put a great deal of work into their preparation.Unfortunately for Duvivier (or fortunately for us), "The Great Waltz" was filmed with a meticulous care and a total disregard for cost unusual even in these halcyon days at MGM. The project had originated with Thalberg some years earlier and Hyman was determined to do the late producer proud no matter what the expense.When it became apparent that the picture was going to run over schedule, Victor Fleming was signed to direct the straight material, while Duvivier concentrated on the elaborate musical episodes.Fleming directed many of Luise Rainer's scenes, the first encounter between Strauss and Franz Joseph, the whole of the epilogue, the whole sequence in which Poldi disturbs Strauss at his work ending when Gravet sings "One Day When We Were Young", and much of the revolutionary material including the fight between Bois and Kinsky, the flight of Strauss and Carla Donner and their night scene with Christian Rub. The morning after brings us back to Duvivier for his magnificent set-piece, "Tales of the Vienna Woods". Duvivier stays with the film right to the swirling camera finale in the courtyard of the inn, though Fleming worked on the first part of the interior scene between Carla and the innkeeper's wife and has also dubbed Munier's dialogue with some other actor and has post-synced Rub's lines in reply. From this point on, most of the film is Fleming's, including Rainer's scenes with Kruger and Korjus and her extraordinary encounter with Lionel Atwill. Duvivier directed Rainer's spectacular entrance to the theater with its astonishingly effective Eisenstein- inspired jump cuts to the beat of the music. Fleming staged the operetta with the help of Albertina Rasch.When Duvivier was forced to return to France, he left one major musical sequence undone. To direct this portion of the film, Hyman turned to no less a talent than Josef von Sternberg. Although actually born in Vienna, von Sternberg had been signed by MGM to direct a frivolous Hedy Lamarr vehicle, "New York Cinderella". Before starting work on this epic (on which, incidentally, he walked out after only 18 days' shooting), von Sternberg was induced to direct the climax of "The Great Waltz". We pick up his work in the coach. Notice the low angle, the deliberately jolting movement of the camera and the darker texture of the photography, all trademarks of von Sternberg's style. The ensuing song as the boat pulls away (filmed from a satisfying multiplicity of dramatic angles) topped with the grandly exuberant "Blue Danube" montage, makes a flourishing finish to an eye-and-ear- popping movie.

aa56 This picture is mainly a showcase for the magnificent singing and trilling abilities of Gorgeous Korjus, although I wish she would have done more singing than trilling. That mischievous grin she often has during the film is captivating. The opening credits imply that the only three real characters in the film are Strauss, his mother, and Franz Josef (maybe Dommayer). They were merely used to develop this fictitious story about Strauss. There are a few tidbits of truth in it. Strauss Senior did want his son to be a banker, and there was a Dommayer establishment and an Austrian revolution in 1848.Strauss was married three times, but only one ended in divorce, so if he was a rake, he didn't marry and dump.I was disappointed that the wonderful tenor voice of George Houston (Fritz Schiller) was not used more in the film, and it is sad that his career did not advance more successfully before he passed away much too early.

Marcin Kukuczka With the very intentions of the director, Julien Duvivier, and his crew attempting to dramatize Strauss' spirit rather than facts from his life, it appears to be no surprise to notice how deeply THE GREAT WALTZ is rooted in the convention of the 1930s. If you await some biographical outline, some educational content, forget it. Simply the movie excludes such expectations from the very beginning. But is it something that we could totally contrast with Marvin J Chomsky's wonderful STRAUSS DYNASTY? THE GREAT WALTZ is a fairy tale, dreamlike movie where music bursts out in unforgettable enthusiasm, love is in the air of peaceful Vienna Woods, a little saccharine charm accompanies the elaborate images and in its center is...Johann Strauss Jr called Schani. Unreal and too elegant as it may seem, Strauss is, after all, a Viennese composer. Let me focus on the protagonist. But is it Schani Strauss, a waltz or rather both inseparably that constitute the movie's charm?Depicted by Fernand Gravey, Schani does not clearly deliver the revolutionary aspect of his personality and his music. Obviously there is no single mention of the conflict with his father, Johann Strauss Sr (known mostly for his Radetzky March), there is no depiction of his hard way to becoming a self made composer. Fired by the banker Wertheimer, Schani feels free because he is not to make money but glorious music. But all this makes him a more 'romantic,' so to say, hero. Combined with the context of 1848, he is not a sort of pacifist (as it was far the case of these movies) but a musician full of zeal of leading people to the world of his music, the charm of his waltzes. In this way, Strauss and his music are inseparable. Interestingly, the action takes place at the beginning of his career. And yet, we hear all of his waltzes from THE BLUE DANUBE to KAISERWALTZ. The movie is, therefore, separated from historical chronology but everyone stops to care about that. We like that because Strauss is far from any realism in portrayal and far from saccharine idealization...somewhere in between...where could that be better achieved if not with women at his side? Luise Rainer as Poldi, Schani's wife, is placed in contradictory character-depiction with Carla Donner played by Miliza Korjus, an actress of partly Polish ancestry. Both women differ considerably but both constitute inspiration for Schani. While singer Carla Donner (with some magnificent moments of her songs) reveals extravaganza, Poldi strikes us with considerable naiveness. 'You told me you love me' seems to evoke above all in her attitude. In rivalry, perhaps, and moments of concord and acceptance, they both will have to face each other in the most unpredictable situations. Among scenes that Miliza Korjus and Fernand Gravey share together, a mention must be made of Wienerwald scene (scene in Vienna Woods) and the spontaneous, charming composition of the famous waltz. The Coachman, foremost, provides great touches of humor inevitable in a movie of this sort.With the visual aesthetics of the movie come the elaborate sets, very beautiful choreography and exquisite gowns by Adrian (known for Garbo movies). Subtle scenes of growing enthusiasm whilst composing blend with public events, the most important of which appears to be the debut performance at Dommayer's.The finale is, however, something that appears to be quintessential for what Johann Strauss' music has meant to Vienna for all these years. Partly humorous and partly serious, but above all, a jubilant conclusion in the tribute to the King of Waltz and his meeting with the emperor remain in the memory for long. But if you have not seen it yet? You indeed have something to look forward to...a beautiful movie ahead of you.