Alfred Hitchcock's
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Waltzes From Vienna
NOW ON DVD
Then he meets a Countess
(Fay Compton) who has written some verses and asks his help in setting them to
music. When her husband, the prince (Frank Vosper), hears from a servant
that a young man is upstairs with his wife, he storms into the music room, but
the name of Strauss placates him. Later, Rasi isn't so easily placated,
for she senses a rival.
However, the Countess essentially has
Strauss Jr's best interests at heart. With a publisher friend, she
successfully plots to have the elder Strauss delayed one night so that Jr's new
composition, "The Blue
Danube," may receive a performance. Strauss Jr.
conducts the waltz himself, becoming the sensation of Vienna. Soon
afterwards, though the Prince's suspicions have briefly
Hitchcock was not particularly fond of Waltzes
From Vienna. He accepted an offer by producer Tom Arnold to
make a film of a stage spectacle by Guy Bolton that had run for a year in
London. (The original source was German, the basis for the 1933 film Waltzerkrieg).
He soon regretted it. He decided this wasn't his type of material and took
out his frustrations on the film's hapless stars by indulging in practical jokes
and cruel sarcasm. Jessie Matthews, Britain's ascendant young musical
performer, suffered as much as anyone at his hands. To make matters worse,
the budget was tight, and Hitchcock was anxious to keep on schedule. Often
cast and crew worked far into the night.
While Alfred Hitchcock himself did not consider Waltzes From
Vienna one of his masterpieces,
Shot in 1933 B&W by Gaumont-British,
G.F.D., UK. Aka "Strauss' Great
Waltz
".
Music by Johann Strauss the Elder & Johann Strauss the
Younger. Stars Jessie Matthews, Esmond Knight, Frank Vosper, Fay Compton
and Edmund Gwenn.
Waltzes From Vienna has never been released commercially in the US and is believed to be in the
public domain. We have obtained a very good copy of this great classic and
with our state-of-the-art equipment we make available a limited number of
excellent reproductions. 78 minutes. $35.
DVD. US shipping $.99
first class or $5.10
priority. Outside US $3 for air.
Johann Strauss Jr. (Esmond Knight) is the son of the famous conductor and
composer, and plays the violin in his father's orchestra. He hasn't had
any of his own compositions performed or published because Strauss Sr. (Edmund
Gwenn) sternly discourages it. Not dismayed, Strauss Jr gives singing
lessons to his gifted sweetheart Rasi (Jessie Matthews), the
daughter of a pastry chef, and dedicates all his songs to her. 
been aroused again,
everyone is finally reconciled.
others have found the movie
"rather charming" and no serious Hitchcock collection should be without
it.
