Song without End * (1960, Dirk Bogarde, Capucine, Geneviève Page, Patricia Morison, Ivan Desny, Martita Hunt, Lou Jacobi, Marcel Dalio) – Classic Movie Review 4601

The 1960 musical biopic Song without End is a famously awful version of the life of composer Franz Liszt and his scandalous romance with Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein. Dirk Bogarde and Capucine are horribly miscast and cruelly exposed as the star duo. 

Directors Charles Vidor and George Cukor’s 1960 musical biopic Song without End is a famously awful Hollywooden version of the life of Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt and his scandalous romance with Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein of Russia. The alluring and talented Dirk Bogarde and Capucine are horribly miscast and cruelly exposed as Liszt and Carolyne. At 141 minutes, the movie is very long, but, boy, does it seem a lot longer – a Song without End, indeed.

The stars look handsome and so does the film in James Wong Howe’s spruce CinemaScope and Technicolor images and Walter Holscher’s production designs. And of course the music is pretty, with its nearly 40 musical selections by Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz and others heard in the film, and with its Oscar-winning Best Scoring of a Musical Picture for Morris W Stoloff and Harry Sukman. But that is about all the movie has to offer.

You could certainly knock this off the Liszt of films you need to see! It did however win that Best Music score Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Musical).

Also in the struggling cast are Geneviève Page as Countess Marie D’Agoult, Patricia Morison as French novelist and memoirist George Sand, Ivan Desny as Prince Nicholas, Martita Hunt, Lou Jacobi, Albert Rueprecht, Marcel Dalio, Lyndon Brook as Richard Wagner, Walter Rilla, Hans Unterkircher, Erland Erlandsen, Alexander [Alex] Davion as Frederic Chopin, Katherine Squire, Bess Flowers, Ray Foster and Leola Wendorff.

Vidor, who made the 1944 film A Song to Remember about the relationship between composer Frederic Chopin and George Sand, died after filming only a sixth of the movie, and was replaced by Cukor, who insisted on him having top director billing. Bogarde later recalled that he was ‘secretly relieved’ by Vidor’s death, as he and Capucine were mistreated by the bad-tempered director.

The recording of the music by Earl Mounce was completed before filming so Bogarde could learn the finger movements to make him appear to be playing the piano. Musical adviser Victor Aller rehearsed Bogarde in piano technique for three weeks.

It was all in vain. Costing $3.5 million, it took only $1,500,000 at the US and Canada box office.

Morris Stoloff was head of Columbia Pictures’ music department. It is Stoloff’s last film as composer, but he was musical director on 400 films up to The Naked Runner in 1967; he died in 1980 aged 87.

Cukor thought Morison’s voice as George Sand was too feminine and had it redubbed by another actress (Anna Lee).

Song Without End (subtitled The Story of Franz Liszt) is directed by Charles Vidor and George Cukor, is made and released by Columbia Pictures, runs 141 minutes, is produced by William Goetz, is shot in CinemaScope and Technicolor by James Wong Howe and Charles Lang, is written by Oscar Millard and Walter Bernstein, based on screenwriter Oscar Saul’s original 1952 script, is scored by Morris Stoloff and Harry Sukman, with music by Franz Liszt, and designed by Walter Holscher.

The cast are Dirk Bogarde as Franz Liszt, Capucine as Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein, Geneviève Page as Countess Marie D’Agoult, Patricia Morison as George Sand, Ivan Desny as Prince Nicholas, Martita Hunt as Grand Duchess, Lou Jacobi as Potin, Albert Rueprecht as Prince Felix Lichnowsky, Marcel Dalio as Chelard, Lyndon Brook as Richard Wagner, Walter Rilla as Archbishop, Hans Unterkircher as Czar, Erland Erlandsen as Sigismond Thalberg, Alexander Davion as Frédéric Chopin, Katherine Squire as Anna Liszt, Bess Flowers, Ray Foster and Leola Wendorff.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4601

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com