THE SPECTER OF THE ROSE

US, 1946, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Judith Anderson, Michael Chekhov, Ivan Kirov, Viola Essen, Lionel Stander.
Directed by Ben Hecht.

The Specter of the Rose is one of the few films directed by prolific writer Ben Hecht. Hecht won an Oscar at the first Oscars in 1927 for his story of Underworld. He wrote a number of other plays, especially with his partner Charles MacArthur, their classic being The Front Page (filmed a number of times including as His Girl Friday). He also acted as a screen doctor up to his death in 1964.

This is an odd film, has a ballet background, a ballet dancer suspected of murdering his wife who then falls in love with another ballerina. A detective believes that it was murder and begins to investigate. Lionel Stander has a strong role as a journalist. Judith Anderson appears, primly and with the touch of vinegar, as the ballet mistress.

This is a little-seen film – an odd kind of film but interesting for the work of Ben Hecht.

1. The purpose of this film and its value? Written by playwright and screenwriter and directed by a writer? The staginess of the screenplay?

2. How would the film be described in identifying its genre: a ballet film, a theatre film, a melodrama, a love story? All of these? How well were they blended?

3. The style of mid-forties filming: black and white photography, sets, small budget? The casting of the stars and the appropriateness of the casting, especially the poet?

4. The Broadway background, the world of the ballet? A world of success and failure? The comment on the theatre and its way of life? Its effect on people? The framework of the film beginning with the dancing class with La Sylph and ending there? What had happened within that framework?

5. The re-creation of the ballet worlds La Sylph and her reputation? Judith Anderson's style? Her training of younger dancers, her cynicism? Her ambitions for success? Her warning that she was a cranky old lady supervising the dancers? Her fear about Andrei, her knowledge of the truth, her wanting to warn Reidl? Her returning to the same situation after the episode of the film?

6. How credible a character was the producer? His allusions to the contemporary Broadway scene? His ambitions, using people, lack of expertise in using money, lying, manipulating people, failure, trying to start in? The
comment on this type of producer?

7. The character of the poet? Was he credible? The casting of Lionel Stander? His language and his voice? His ironic comments, his love of Heidi, his perpetual presence and intrusion? His using the police for his own purposes?

8. How well did the film focus on the mystery? The presentation of Andrei and the revelation of the truth? An ordinary American pretending to be something better? Hie background and home life, his ballet success, the nature of his madness, his hearing the muses, his relationship with his wives? His success and his fits? The reality of the killing of his wife, the threat to Heidi? Her dancing with him and wanting to change him? His attempts on her life? Her protecting him? His look, his sound? The melodramatic overtones? The significance of the tour and his success, the Death Dance of The Spectre of the Rose, his illness and his dancing himself to death?

9. The character of Heidi and her hero-worship of Andrei? Her involvement? The sequence of the wedding and the dinner? Her dancing with him? Innocent helper, threatened? The aftermath of his death?

10. Comment on the themes of reality and unreality, truth, madness and sanity.

11. The significance of the title, the explanation of the ballet, the symbols of the ballet, the impact of music and dance? The impact of this madness in the world of art?