Review: Waltzes From Vienna

The story of Johann Strauss (Esmond Knight), who starts off as a violinist in the symphony (and shadow) of his demanding same-named father (Edmund Gwenn). His father is a musical traditionalist who sees nothing in his son’s emotive playing, whilst Strauss the Younger’s girlfriend (Jessie Matthews) wants him to work at her father’s bakery and do away with this musical nonsense. She’s also a touch jealous of Strauss’ rich benefactor (Fay Compton). Frank Vosper turns up as Compton’s husband, an Austrian prince.

 

In order to get me to endure a musical, I usually either have to be a fan of the director or it needs to be a biopic about a musician. This relatively obscure 1934 film happens to be both. The only musical Alfred Hitchcock (“Strangers on a Train”, “Vertigo”, “Psycho”, “Frenzy”) ever made, it’s a biopic of Johann Strauss. Sadly, it’s nothing to really write home about. It plays very much like a film that any director could’ve made, and the work of a director just killing time making a movie and a buck or two. Based on a stage musical, there’s little if any indication of its maker and while perfectly competent, it’s entirely unremarkable. A bad film? Certainly not, but it plays very much like a director-for-hire studio job to me. And even when Hitchcock did work for the big studios, he still felt like an auteur with his own distinctive style.

 

Esmond Knight is perfectly fine as the not overly interesting Strauss the Younger, his character and story are a total cliché. It’s your typical young romantic lead character trying to make his way in the world and prove himself to his stern father. A very short Edmund Gwenn (who always delivered for Hitchcock) steals the film effortlessly as his hard-to-impress, traditionalist father. Next to Gwenn, the best performance comes from British actor Frank Vosper and his Austrian accent. Outside of the performance, the most memorable thing is a comic bit at a bakery that represents the only vaguely Hitchcockian touch. Otherwise, this is your typical studio musical biopic circa 1930-1949. Far from Hitchcock’s worst film, but it’s not hard to see why this one isn’t terribly well-remembered. It’s not memorable, and it’s not overly indicative of its director who later referred to it (talking to Francois Truffaut) as ‘the lowest ebb of my career’.

 

Some good performances, but you’ll spend much of the film wondering why Hitchcock felt he needed to make the film, and what drew him to the dime-a-dozen story. Harmless enough I guess, but not memorable. Guy Bolton (“The Lady is Willing”, “Anastasia”) and Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville adapted the stage musical.  

 

Rating: C+