SYNOPSICS
Humoresque (1946) is a English movie. Jean Negulesco has directed this movie. Joan Crawford,John Garfield,Oscar Levant,J. Carrol Naish are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1946. Humoresque (1946) is considered one of the best Drama,Music,Romance movie in India and around the world.
Paul Boray comes from a working class background. He has been interested in the violin since he was a child, which his father disliked since he felt it a waste of money, but which his mother supported. Into his adult life, Paul wants to become a concert violinist, and although he shows talent, he does not have the right connections to make it into the concert performance world, much like his longtime friend, virtuoso pianist Sid Jeffers, and cellist Gina, both who, like Paul, train with the National Institute Orchestra. Gina and Paul have a connection with each other, Gina who confesses her love for him. While performing at a party with Sid, Paul meets Helen and Victor Wright, their hosts. Victor is a perceptive but self-admittedly weak man, while his wife Helen is strong minded but insecure which manifests itself as neurosis. She constantly tries to forget about her unhappy life by excessive alcohol consumption. Helen becomes Paul's benefactress, which ultimately results in a ...
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Humoresque (1946) Reviews
A Startling WB Melodrama
It opens with a close up of John Garfield and that, already, gets you going. The intensity and power of the man. A from rags to riches tale with an extra something. The extra something here is Clifford Odetts, the language is as pungent as its pace. The truth in John Garfield's face rises everything several notches but, perhaps, the biggest surprise from a 2007's standpoint, is Joan Crawford's performance. She's never been one of my favorites, I always thought impossible to warm up to her and her tough lady from the wrong side of the tracks left me cold but here, she's rounded and brilliant, torn between who she is and who she would like to be. Great lines, fantastic close ups - wearing eye glasses, removing the glasses and squinting - At moments you feel the camera devours her. The director, Jean Negulesco - Three Coins In The Fountain, How To Marry a Millionaire - never flown this high. This 1946 Warners melodrama has the stuff that great works of art are made of. Thrilling
The best Joan Crawford performance ever.
As Helen Joan Crawford gives her greatest performance and she should have been nominated for Best Actress that year. She certainly gave a better performance than Olivia De havilland gave in "To each His Own". John Garfield is also at top of his form and he certainly is a good match for Miss Crawford. What a shame that in a few short years he would be backlisted. Oscar Levant gives a typical Oscar Levant snide performance but he is a bit more serious in this role as the best friend of Mr. Garfield. the use of the "Liebestod" from "Tritan und Isolde" coupled with the waves rushing in might appear to some as camp but Miss crawford's handling of the scene is nothing short of magnificent. One usually overlooked performance is that of then billed Bobby Blake who has been much in the news lately. He portrayed Mr. Garfield's as a boy and did a good job of it without the ususal winey voice and mannerisms that made him so easy to hate in the "Our Gang" comedies. I have always thought that the adult robert Blake would have been an excellent choice to portray John Garfield in a biopic of his life. By all means see "Mildred Pearce" which won Miss Crawford the Oscar but don't miss "Humoresque".
Perhaps Joan's Finest Hour
The film is over 2 hours long, but Crawford only has about 1 hour of film time in it, and it is surely one of her finest performances and finest films in her lengthy career. She plays a married socialite who takes particular interest in a rising concert violinst (played by Garfield). This is one of my favorite movies of all time and yes the ending is one of the greatest of all times. ***1/2 out of ****.
CRAWFORDS BEST PERFORMANCE!!!a great film!!
Crawford was great but not my favorite actress..Bette Davis was.. but this performance in Humoresque can only be portrayed by Crawford! She was absloutely perfect for the role of Helen Wright.. and yes was brilliant..To me this is her best role: not sudsy or sappy... beautiful,sophisticated, society bitch who sexually longed for a man & did everything in her power to control & possess him..I feel the chemistry between she & co star John Garfield was ELECTRIC!! He portrayed the violinist,Paul Boyar so well.. the man she lusted for and wanted to possess for herself... The score, the photography the direction Brilliant..Ive seeen this film many times & each time it gets better... Im very critical of Miss Crawfords work but 5 or 6 of her films are outstanding.. This is a notch above Mildred Pierce for me because the character she is portraying is so similar to herself (according to bios etc)..& her beauty & class are unquestioned..the closeup of her ,as she observes Garfield in the rehearsal hall..is comparable to Garbo's closeup ,final scene , of Queen Christina!!! This is a film that never ever bores me..I rate it a 10 !!! Watch It....
Splendid performances and music
It's fun sometimes to watch a movie, and mentally juxtapose it in your mind with another you've seen. In "Humoresque," for example, watch the part where Paul (John Garfield) is delivering his major violin performance, while his wealthy, possessive patron, Helen (Joan Crawford), sits in her expensive box (his mother and "girlfriend" are in the cheaper seats) in a sensuous, almost orgasmic state as she watches him. This scene is depicted as graphically as the constrictions imposed on films in the mid-40's would allow - narrow boundaries compared with even daytime television today. Now visualize Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone from "Basic Instinct." Instead of being a detective and author/murder suspect, respectively, Michael is on-stage like Paul, playing his heart out, and Sharon is the wealthy patron in the audience. Now imagine what Sharon might do, and the camera show, in "her" sensuous reaction to his performance: not a bad vision, eh? This film IS an outstanding example of the "noir" qualities which were a hallmark of the 30's to the early 50's - from the earlier stages of talking pictures, through the depression and post-WW II years. Joan Crawford was one of the two best (along with Bette Davis) at portraying this type of cold, possessive, and thoroughly selfish, powerful female presence. From later revelations about her real life, it was probably due less to her acting prowess than one imagined at that time. And Garfield played the tough, yet easily-manipulated, handsome male "pawn" to perfection - as the fore-mentioned Michael Douglas has done in the present. Watch this movie for the outstanding performances of two icons of the film's era. It also represents, in my opinion, one of the three best films for the lead characters' music, presented within 10 years after WW II - each with characters meeting unhappy ends. There is, of course, the great Isaac Stern's music here. Ten years later, another matinée idol, Tyrone Power, starred as the title character in "The Eddy Duchin Story," with the gorgeous Kim Novak, and Carmen Cavallero's talented piano offerings. In about the mid-point between these two movies, in 1950, Kirk Douglas was Rick Martin in "Young Man With a Horn," based largely of the meteoric, talented career of the great trumpet player, Bix Biederbecke, whose life ended at age 28 - but who was so talented he is well-remembered nearly 75 years later; Harry James' playing in this film is comparable to Stern's and Cavallero's in the other two, and Lauren Bacall and Doris Day are there as Kirk's love interests, the naughty girl and good girl, respectively. Watch these three movies in the order made; you'll be exposed to great music, and three all-time great performers providing music via their respective instruments - as well as some of the great stars in cinema history. And the musical finale from the Duchin movie will bring a tear to virtually anyone's eyes.