The Great Waltz (1938 film)

The Great Waltz
Directed by	Julien Duvivier Victor Fleming (uncredited) Josef von Sternberg (uncredited)
Written by	Gottfried Reinhardt (story) Samuel Hoffenstein Walter Reisch Vicki Baum (story, uncredited)
Produced by	Bernard H. Hyman
Starring	Fernand Gravet Luise Rainer Miliza Korjus
Edited by	Tom Held
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	November 4, 1938 (1938-11-04)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,260,000
Box office	$2,422,000

The Great Waltz is a 1938 American biographical film based very loosely on the life of Johann Strauss II. It starred Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet (Gravey) and Miliza Korjus. Rainer received top billing at the producer's insistence, but her role is comparatively minor as Strauss' wife, Poldi Vogelhuber. It was the only starring role for Korjus, who was a famous opera soprano and played one in the film.

Joseph Ruttenberg won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Korjus was nominated for Supporting Actress and Tom Held for Film Editing. The film was popular in Australia and was distributed largely throughout Sydney and Melbourne for two years after its initial release.

Plot summary

The highly fictionalised story sees 'Schani' dismissed from his job in a bank. He puts together a group of unemployed musicians who wangle a performance at Dommayer's cafe. The audience is minimal, but when two opera singers, Carla Donner and Fritz Schiller, visit whilst their carriage is being repaired, the music attracts a wider audience.

Strauss is caught up in a student protest; he and Carla Donner avoid arrest and escape to the Vienna Woods, where he is inspired to create the waltz 'Tales from the Vienna Woods'.

Carla asks Strauss for some music to sing at an aristocratic soiree and this leads to the composer receiving a publishing contract. He's on his way, and he can now marry Poldi Vogelhuber, his sweetheart. But the closeness of Strauss and Carla Donner during rehearsals of operettas, atrracts comment, not least from Count Hohenfried, Donner's admirer.

Poldi remains loyal to Strauss and the marriage is a long one. He is received by the Kaiser Franz Josef (whom he unknowingly insulted in the aftermath of the student protests) and the two stand before cheering crowds on the balcony of Schőnbrunn.

Box Office

According to MGM records the film earned $918,000 in the US and Canada and $1,504,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $724,000.

Cast

• Luise Rainer as Poldi Vogelhuber
• Fernand Gravet as Johann Strauss
• Miliza Korjus as Carla Donner
• Hugh Herbert as Hofbauer
• Lionel Atwill as Count Hohenfried
• Curt Bois as Kienzl
• Al Shean as Cellist
• Minna Gombell as Mrs. Hofbauer
• Alma Kruger as Mrs. Strauss
• Greta Meyer as Mrs. Vogelhuber
• Bert Roachas Vogelhuber
• Henry Hull as Imperator Franz Joseph
• Sig Rumann as Wertheimer
• George Houston as Schiller
• Herman Bing as Dommayer
• Christian Hub as Coachman

Re-make

Main article: The Great Waltz (1972 film)

The film was re-made in 1972 with Horst Buchholz playing Strauss alongside Mary Costa, Nigel Patrick and Yvonne Mitchell.

External links

• The Great Waltz at the TCM Movie Database
• The Great Waltz at IMDb
• The Great Waltz at AllMovie
• 1972 remake: The Great Waltz at IMDb