The Blue Danube | |
---|---|
Directed by | Herbert Wilcox |
Written by | Miles Malleson |
Based on | story by Doris Zinkeisen |
Produced by | Herbert Wilcox |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Freddie Young |
Edited by | Michael Hankinson |
Music by | Alfred Rode |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Woolf & Freedman Film Service (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 72 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Blue Danube is a 1932 British romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Brigitte Helm, Joseph Schildkraut and Desmond Jeans. [1] Its plot, based on a short story by Doris Zinkeisen, concerns a Hungarian gypsy who leaves his girlfriend for a countess, but soon begins to suffer heartache. [2] [3] The Blue Danube was made in both English and German-language versions.
In a Hungarian gypsy encampment, carefree Sandor ives with his beautiful sweetheart Yutka. Into their lives rides a blonde countess, with whom Sandor becomes infatuated.
Yutka soon flees from her faithless lover. Sandor roams the country, searching for his lost love, but finds her too late — she now wears furs and has her own aristocratic love—and Sandor returns heartbroken to his Romany encampment.
Herbert Wilcox later wrote in his memoirs that he made the film because he was frustrated from making a series of photographed stage plays. He wanted to make a "talking that did not talk - and without subtitles. Music, of course, was to be a dominant substitute for words or text". [4] He decided to make a film with minimal dialogue.
Wilcox claims the reviews he received were among the worst of his career. However he said the film recovered its cost from screening in Australia alone. [5]
In contemporary reviews, Frank Nugent in The New York Times wrote, "The chief merit of "Blue Danube," a British film now showing at the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse, is its presentation of Alfred Rode and his Royal Tzigany Band, a group of eighteen Hungarian gypsy musicians. They play the famous Strauss waltz, some melodies by Liszt and a guitar song of Mr. Rode's composition. Not being a music critic, nor possessing one's technical vocabulary, this corner must be content to report that the selections are played in a manner that sets one's blood to pounding. But Mr. Rode and his band are not all the story of 'Blue Danube.' To be exact, they are little of it, and the rest is a sorry tale of poor editing, incoherence and an overwrought performance by Joseph Schildkraut." The critic concluded that "there is nothing in the film's acting, direction or tempo to arouse enthusiasm." [6]
The Monthly Film Bulletin described the film as "very dated" and that it "must not be looked on as a typical example of Herbert Wilcox's production". The review concluded that neither the sound or photography were "up to modern standards". [7]
More recently, TV Guide called it a "plodding Gypsy musical." [8]
Brigitte Helm was a German actress, best remembered for her dual role as Maria and her double named Futura, in Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film, Metropolis.
Joseph Schildkraut was an Austrian-American actor. He won an Oscar for his performance as Captain Alfred Dreyfus in the film The Life of Emile Zola (1937). He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance as Otto Frank in the film The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and a Primetime Emmy for his performance as Rabbi Gottlieb in a 1962 episode of the television series Sam Benedict.
The Gypsy Baron is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II which premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 24 October 1885. Its German libretto by Ignaz Schnitzer is based on the unpublished 1883 story Saffi by Mór Jókai. Jokai later published a novel A cigánybáró in 1885 using an expanded version of this same story.
The Romani flag or the flag of the Roma is the international ethnic flag of the Romani people, historically known as "Gypsies", which form a stateless minority in countries across Eurasia, Africa, the Americas, and Australasia. It was approved by the representatives of various Romani communities at the first and second World Romani Congresses (WRC), in 1971 and 1978. The flag consists of a background of blue and green, representing the heavens and earth, respectively; it also contains a 16-spoke red dharmachakra, or cartwheel, in the center. The latter element stands for the itinerant tradition of the Romani people and is also an homage to the flag of India, added to the flag by scholar Weer Rajendra Rishi. It superseded a number of tribal emblems and banners, several of which evoked claims of Romani descent from the Ancient Egyptians.
The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts composed by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898, at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances. Star Alice Nielsen and many of the original company traveled to London, where the piece opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre on April 9, 1901, running for 88 performances. It was revived in New York on November 4, 1929, at Jolson's 59th Street Theatre, starring Tessa Kosta, and ran for 16 performances. The piece continued to be revived, including by the Light Opera of Manhattan in the late 20th century and the Comic Opera Guild in the early 21st century.
Souls at Sea is a 1937 American historical adventure film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Gary Cooper and George Raft. Based on a story by Ted Lesser, the film is about a first mate on a slave ship who frees the slaves on the ship after a mutiny overthrows the ship's captain. The title of this film was spoofed in the Laurel and Hardy comedy film Saps at Sea (1940). The supporting cast features Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Joseph Schildkraut, Robert Cummings, George Zucco, Tully Marshall, Monte Blue, and an uncredited Alan Ladd and Edward Van Sloan.
Shalako is a 1968 Western film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot. It was shot at Shepperton Studios near London with sets designed by the art director Herbert Smith. Location shooting took place in Almería in southern Spain, particularly in the Tabernas Desert which was frequently used in European westerns during the decade.
The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1939 American historical adventure film very loosely adapted from the last section of the 1847–1850 novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, père, which is itself based on the French legend of the Man in the Iron Mask.
Herbert Sydney Wilcox CBE was a British film producer and director.
Karl Hartl was an Austrian film director.
Elizabeth of Ladymead is a 1948 British Technicolor drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Hugh Williams, Isabel Jeans and Bernard Lee. It charts the life of a British family between 1854 and 1945 and their involvement in four wars - the Crimean War, Boer War, First World War and Second World War. In each era a Beresford is in the army and dresses in the uniform of the age in most scenes, even at home.
Goodnight, Vienna is a 1932 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Jack Buchanan, Anna Neagle and Gina Malo. Two lovers in Vienna are separated by the First World War, but are later reunited.
Carnival is a 1931 British drama film in black and white with colour sequences directed by Herbert Wilcox and produced by his British & Dominions Film Corporation, starring Matheson Lang, Joseph Schildkraut, Kay Hammond and Chili Bouchier. During a performance of Othello a jealous actor attempts to strangle his wife who he believes has committed adultery. It was a remake of the 1921 film Carnival. The French musician Alfred Rode appears with his band.
Desmond Jeans was a British actor.
The Loves of Robert Burns is a 1930 British historical musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Joseph Hislop, Dorothy Seacombe and Eve Gray. It depicts the life of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Southern Love is a 1924 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Betty Blythe, Herbert Langley and Randle Ayrton. It is based on the verse drama The Spanish Student by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is known by the alternative title Woman's Secret.
Young April is a 1926 American silent romantic comedy film directed by Donald Crisp, and starring Bessie Love, Joseph Schildkraut, and Rudolph Schildkraut. The film was produced by Cecil B. DeMille's production company and distributed by Producers Distributing Corporation. The film was adapted from Egerton Castle's 1899 novel of the same name by Jeanie MacPherson and Douglas Z. Doty. Art direction for the film was done by Anton Grot and its costumes were designed by Adrian.
Alfred Rode was an Italian-born French composer, musician, actor and film director. He was born in Torre del Greco. In 1936 Rode appeared in the British film Gypsy Melody alongside Lupe Vélez, which was a remake of his own 1935 film Juanita. Rode was married to the French actress Claudine Dupuis from 1951.
The Baroness and the Butler is a 1938 American romantic comedy film directed by Walter Lang and starring William Powell and Annabella in her American English-language debut. The supporting cast includes Helen Westley, Joseph Schildkraut, Nigel Bruce and Lynn Bari. The film was produced and distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox. It is based on the play Jean by the Hungarian writer Ladislaus Bus-Fekete. It received a generally positive reception from film critics.