I believe there's a general stupidity lurking within my brain. I can't tell half of these young actors apart. The main character Strauss (the younger), one of the servants for a royal (a Baron I believe) and one of two of the other random characters all look exactly the same to me. They have that same basic simple thin face and slightly breit dinner coat attire.
The film revolves around the child of the famous composer Strauss. He himself is also named Strauss and he's trying to compose his own music. Because of the 1930s movie and we want to get the interest of the general people we decide to have more modern music. The youngest Strauss wants to play all these piano ballads he dedicated to the woman he loves.
Which I thought was this random girl he was hanging out with at the beginning of the film in the building that was supposedly on fire. But later on he ends up falling for this Duchess lady (or some other royal title) and wants to start making songs about her. And I don't know what happened to the original woman from the story to begin with.
And it's around here that I started losing interest. It's a Hitchcock film involved in Imperial Vienna. That should be more than enough to keep my interest going. But it just wasn't grabbing me. I don't know if it was just the Baseline acting or the fact that this is a romance not meant to be situation. Also mixed in with a story of a this concerned father and an anxious son wanting to prove his worth.
It's all very straightforward and to the point. There's also an odd amount of slapstick humour. Characters falling down, people attacking one another, reacting to extreme situations like taking out an entire restaurant set up during a fire so that the customers can still enjoy their meal.
And there's nothing wrong with any of that, it's the highlight of the film in some ways. But the majority of the film is just a basic Love Story. It's not slap sticky in it's approach. So it feels like you have a internal drama struggling to fight against a comedy at the same time. And I wish the film would choose one as opposed to the other.
Later on there was a bit more character development. Straws the younger has a relationship with this one girl he loves and the ability to play sad music with a different girl who helps him to reach his ambition. All the while each one of them having a slightly different opinion of Strauss's father Lucy's little to no interest in his son's work. But unfortunately this happens well into the second half of the movie. It's very difficult to get to that point when you're just interested to begin with. Patience might be the best virtue here.
Though I personally was not enthralled with this movie I can stay that the acting was fairly good. Jessie Matthews and Esmond Knight gives very convincing performances. Edmund Gwenn playing Strauss the older kind of hams up his performance acting a bit more obscure and ridiculous than he should. But overall it works quite well. I think the set design is where some of this movie could use some influence. It feels a little flat.
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