THE EMPEROR WALTZ
US, 1948, 106 minutes, Colour.
Bing Crosby, Joan Fontaine, Roland Culver, Lucille Watson, Richard Haydn, Harold Vermilyea, Sig Rumann, Julie Dean.
Directed by Billy Wilder.
The Emperor Waltz is souffle entertainment. It is a Bing Crosby musical. It is a comedy written and directed by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder (Five Graves to Cairo, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard). While made in Hollywood and North America, it tries to capture the atmosphere of Austria at the turn of the century (and reports say that Wilder even painted mountains and flowers to get his effect).
The setting is the empire at the time of Franz Josef (an engaging performance by Richard Haydn). Bing Crosby is an American salesman with phonographs. Joan Fontaine is a princess. The film highlights the music of Strauss (and other composers) as well as having a range of '40s songs. It is pleasant entertainment - though very very slight from such a film-maker as Billy Wilder.
1. A pleasing romantic comedy? Period entertainment?
2. Colour photography, the atmosphere of Austria, empire, pageantry?
3. The musical score: the Strauss music, classical composers, popular 19th century composers, songs for Bing Crosby?
4. The work of the writer-director? His reputation for the cynical touch? The soft touch? The final ironies about Virgil Smith and the Princess? The advice of the Emperor? (And the overtones of the defeat of Nazism and the attitudes of 1948?)
5. The Austrian empire, tradition, pageantry, the transition from 19th to 20th century? The absolutism of the Emperor? European nobility? Contrast with Americans? Palace sequences? Ballroom sequences?
6. The Emperor and his age, experience, wisdom? The interludes with the dogs and their mating? The encounter with Virgil and his phonograph? The stag-hunting and its being spoilt? The interview with Virgil? The advice about the European world and the American world? The deceit about the upset at the end? His final wise advice?
7. Romance: Bing Crosby as the American travelling salesman, full of confidence, brash? With the dog called Buttons - like His Master's Voice? His appointment at the palace, the fears of the bomb? The encounter with Johanna? The dog and the remedies? The dog love story paralleling that of the humans? The lyric romance? The interview with the Emperor? Virgil trying to disillusion Johanna? The birth of the pups? Buttons' responsibility? Virgil's intrusion into the ball? Sweeping Johanna off her feet - with the Emperor's consent? A future in new Jersey!
8. Virgil and his type, American, outspoken? Vienna, the dog, the gramophone, the happy ending? The new world, New Jersey?
9. Johanna and her father? Financial situation, her father's snobbery? The interview with the Emperor, the dogs? Johanna as widow? The falling in love with Virgil? The shared rendezvous? Remembering his song? Her disappointment in him? Spurning him at the dance? Happy ending? The fun poked at empire through her father?
10. The absolutism of the empire, pomp and circumstance - the ball, the aristocracy talking, the role of the clergy? The royal veterinarian and snobbery? The contrast with the American new world?
11. A pleasant traditional romance?
