Humoresque (film)
Encyclopedia
Humoresque is a 1946 Warner Bros.
feature film
starring Joan Crawford
and John Garfield
in an older woman/younger man tale about a violinist and his patroness. The screenplay
by Clifford Odets
and Zachary Gold was based upon a novel by Fannie Hurst
. Humoresque was directed by Jean Negulesco
and produced by Jerry Wald
.
) is cancelled. At his apartment, Boray is at rock bottom emotionally. His manager Frederic Bauer (Richard Gaines) is angry with him for misunderstanding what a performing career would be like, and for thinking that music is no longer part of his life as he has lived with it for too long. To the more sympathetic Sid Jeffers (Oscar Levant
) he says he has always wanted to do the right thing, but has always been outside of himself looking in. He cannot get back to the kid he once was.
In the past, young Paul (Bobby Blake
) is choosing a birthday present in a suburban New York Variety store run by Jeffers (Harlan Briggs). He rejects as childish the suggestions of his father 'Papa' Rudy (J. Carroll Naish), a grocery store owner, but settles on a violin, which his father rejects as unsuitable; his price limit is $1.50. Esther, his mother (Ruth Nelson), sympathetic at this stage, buys the $8 violin for him.
A transition from his faltering first steps to being a gifted young violinist follows. On 15 October 1930, he overhears his father Rudy's dismissal of his chances, and the frustration of his brother Phil (Tom D'Andrea) in finding a job. He resolved to go out on his own and not be dependent on his family. He finds a job with locally broadcast orchestra in which Sid Jeffers is the pianist.
At a party, Paul meets the hostess Helen Wright (Joan Crawford
), a patroness in a loveless marriage with an ineffectual aging husband Victor (Paul Cavanaugh), her third. Helen is a self-centered, adulterous woman who uses men as sexual playthings and is initially baffled by the strong-willed and independent Boray. After being rude to him at the party, she sends a golden cigarette case to his home the next day. 'Papa' Boray is impressed, but his mother is now suspicious. At first interested in his talent rather than Boray as a person, though Boray is quick to press her on the second issue. He gains a manager Bauer from her connections, and is now in love with her. On the beach, near the Wright's Long Island home, he reaches out to Helen after a swim, but she runs away; later in the evening she falls off a horse and he kisses her, but Helen does not want to be touched and wishes to be left alone by Paul.
After a shot of ocean waves, everything is different. Helen warns him he might be sorry love was ever invented, but admits she cannot fight him any longer, and is in love with him. Waiting at home, Esther (Ruth Nelson), his mother, is not fooled by his denials, and points out a missed date with Gina Romney (Joan Chandler
), also a musician and his long-term sweetheart. Esther had earlier overheard Victor's putdown of Paul as a "savage" after a concert.
After a tour across America that takes several months, he has lunch with Gina. Sid arrives with Helen, who is immediately jealous of Gina, but Helen leaves in a hurry and Paul follows her; Gina cries. After a scene in Teddy's Bar, in which Helen smashes her drink ("What Is This Thing Called Love?
" is performed by Peg La Centra in the background), she is angry with Paul at being neglected; Paul had never called her, even when close to New York. Paul points out her married status, but Helen urges him to let her become more involved in his career; she is jealous of Gina's musician status.
During the daytime, at his new apartment containing numerous photographs of Helen, he confesses his love for her to his mother. Later, at night in the Wright's home, disquieted by rumours he has heard, Victor asks his wife for a divorce. He is suspicuious of her real intentions, but Helen admits this is first time she has known real love.
At a rehearsal, Paul is passed a note from Helen claiming good news. She asks to see him immediately, but he crumples the note and continues with the rehearsal of the Carmen Fantasie (adapted for the film by Franz Waxman
from Bizet
's Carmen
). At Teddy's Bar, Helen becomes increasingly drunk, and is unable to tolerate the house pianist/singer performing "Embraceable You
". Paul arrives to take her home, but in reality to an impromptu conference. This time, it is Helen who is cool; she repeatedly does not really hear his stated wish to marry her.
Helen visits his parents grocery store, but Esther wishes they would part. Helen listens to Boray play his transcription of Wagner's Liebestod on the radio; Paul had been concerned of her absence. Helen, recalling her husband's words, realizes her dissolute past can only taint his future, and then walks to her death in the nearby ocean; in her jaded mind, the only logical resolution to their problems. Later a group of people wait on the shore. Paul, distraught, is comforted by the loyal Jeffers.
Returning to the opening scene, Paul asks Jeffers to tell Bauer not to worry. He is not running away.
silent film
Humoresque (directed by Frank Borzage
). It was Crawford's first film after her Oscar-winning role in Mildred Pierce
, and her third for Warner Bros, after being dropped by MGM. Costumes for Humoresque were designed by Adrian
and Bernard Newman
.
orchestrated and conducted the score which features selections by Antonín Dvořák
and Richard Wagner
, Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee, Bizet's Carmen
, and Édouard Lalo
's Symphonie Espagnole
. Isaac Stern
served as musical advisor, and the film includes close-ups of his hands playing the violin.
in Screen Stars (Retrospective Review) commented, "Humoresque is undoubtedly Crawford's finest performance...Her timing was flawless, her appearance lovely, her emotions depthful."
Bosley Crowther
in The New York Times
of 26 December 1946 observed, "[T]here is certainly nothing humorous about the lachrymose 'Humoresque' . . . . It is rather a mawkish lamentation upon the hopelessness of love between an art-dedicated violinist and a high-toned lady who lives for self alone. . . . [T]he Warner Brothers have wrapped this piteous affair in a blanket of soul-tearing music which is supposed to make it spiritually purgative. . . . The music, we must say, is splendid—and, if you will only shut your eyes so that you don't have to watch Mr. Garfield leaning his soulful face against that violin or Miss Crawford violently emoting, . . . you may enjoy it very much."
in 1981. The Joan Crawford role was played by Catherine O'Hara
as Crawford, while the John Garfield role was played by violin virtuoso Eugene Fodor
.
In 1998, pop star Madonna released a video for her single The Power of Good-Bye
which was based on several scenes from the movie.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
starring Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
and John Garfield
John Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
in an older woman/younger man tale about a violinist and his patroness. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
and Zachary Gold was based upon a novel by Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst was an American novelist. Although her books are not well remembered today, during her lifetime some of her more famous novels were Stardust , Lummox , A President is Born , Back Street , and Imitation of Life...
. Humoresque was directed by Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco was a Romanian-born American film director and screenwriter....
and produced by Jerry Wald
Jerry Wald
Jerry Wald was an American producer and screenwriter for motion pictures and radio shows.Born Jerome Irving Wald in Brooklyn, New York, he had a brother and sons who were active in show business. Jerry began writing a radio column for the New York Evening Graphic while a student at New York...
.
Plot
In New York City a performance by noted violinist Paul Boray (John GarfieldJohn Garfield
John Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
) is cancelled. At his apartment, Boray is at rock bottom emotionally. His manager Frederic Bauer (Richard Gaines) is angry with him for misunderstanding what a performing career would be like, and for thinking that music is no longer part of his life as he has lived with it for too long. To the more sympathetic Sid Jeffers (Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
) he says he has always wanted to do the right thing, but has always been outside of himself looking in. He cannot get back to the kid he once was.
In the past, young Paul (Bobby Blake
Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
) is choosing a birthday present in a suburban New York Variety store run by Jeffers (Harlan Briggs). He rejects as childish the suggestions of his father 'Papa' Rudy (J. Carroll Naish), a grocery store owner, but settles on a violin, which his father rejects as unsuitable; his price limit is $1.50. Esther, his mother (Ruth Nelson), sympathetic at this stage, buys the $8 violin for him.
A transition from his faltering first steps to being a gifted young violinist follows. On 15 October 1930, he overhears his father Rudy's dismissal of his chances, and the frustration of his brother Phil (Tom D'Andrea) in finding a job. He resolved to go out on his own and not be dependent on his family. He finds a job with locally broadcast orchestra in which Sid Jeffers is the pianist.
At a party, Paul meets the hostess Helen Wright (Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
), a patroness in a loveless marriage with an ineffectual aging husband Victor (Paul Cavanaugh), her third. Helen is a self-centered, adulterous woman who uses men as sexual playthings and is initially baffled by the strong-willed and independent Boray. After being rude to him at the party, she sends a golden cigarette case to his home the next day. 'Papa' Boray is impressed, but his mother is now suspicious. At first interested in his talent rather than Boray as a person, though Boray is quick to press her on the second issue. He gains a manager Bauer from her connections, and is now in love with her. On the beach, near the Wright's Long Island home, he reaches out to Helen after a swim, but she runs away; later in the evening she falls off a horse and he kisses her, but Helen does not want to be touched and wishes to be left alone by Paul.
After a shot of ocean waves, everything is different. Helen warns him he might be sorry love was ever invented, but admits she cannot fight him any longer, and is in love with him. Waiting at home, Esther (Ruth Nelson), his mother, is not fooled by his denials, and points out a missed date with Gina Romney (Joan Chandler
Joan Chandler
Joan Chandler was an American actress who starred in several movies during the 1940s and 1950s, most notably Rope with James Stewart and Humoresque with Joan Crawford....
), also a musician and his long-term sweetheart. Esther had earlier overheard Victor's putdown of Paul as a "savage" after a concert.
After a tour across America that takes several months, he has lunch with Gina. Sid arrives with Helen, who is immediately jealous of Gina, but Helen leaves in a hurry and Paul follows her; Gina cries. After a scene in Teddy's Bar, in which Helen smashes her drink ("What Is This Thing Called Love?
What Is This Thing Called Love?
"What Is This Thing Called Love?"is a 1929 popular song written by Cole Porter, for the musical Wake Up and Dream. It was first performed by Elsie Carlisle in March 1929. The song has become a popular jazz standard and one of Porter's most often played compositions.Wake Up and Dream ran for 263...
" is performed by Peg La Centra in the background), she is angry with Paul at being neglected; Paul had never called her, even when close to New York. Paul points out her married status, but Helen urges him to let her become more involved in his career; she is jealous of Gina's musician status.
During the daytime, at his new apartment containing numerous photographs of Helen, he confesses his love for her to his mother. Later, at night in the Wright's home, disquieted by rumours he has heard, Victor asks his wife for a divorce. He is suspicuious of her real intentions, but Helen admits this is first time she has known real love.
At a rehearsal, Paul is passed a note from Helen claiming good news. She asks to see him immediately, but he crumples the note and continues with the rehearsal of the Carmen Fantasie (adapted for the film by Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films....
from Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
). At Teddy's Bar, Helen becomes increasingly drunk, and is unable to tolerate the house pianist/singer performing "Embraceable You
Embraceable You
"Embraceable You" is a popular song, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The song was originally written in 1928 for an unpublished operetta named East is West. It was eventually published in 1930 and included in the Broadway musical Girl Crazy. where it was performed by...
". Paul arrives to take her home, but in reality to an impromptu conference. This time, it is Helen who is cool; she repeatedly does not really hear his stated wish to marry her.
Helen visits his parents grocery store, but Esther wishes they would part. Helen listens to Boray play his transcription of Wagner's Liebestod on the radio; Paul had been concerned of her absence. Helen, recalling her husband's words, realizes her dissolute past can only taint his future, and then walks to her death in the nearby ocean; in her jaded mind, the only logical resolution to their problems. Later a group of people wait on the shore. Paul, distraught, is comforted by the loyal Jeffers.
Returning to the opening scene, Paul asks Jeffers to tell Bauer not to worry. He is not running away.
Cast
- Joan CrawfordJoan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
as Mrs. Helen Wright - John GarfieldJohn GarfieldJohn Garfield was an American actor adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City and in the early 1930s became an important member of the Group Theater. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner...
as Paul Boray - Oscar LevantOscar LevantOscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
as Sid Jeffers - J. Carrol NaishJ. Carrol NaishJoseph Patrick Carrol Naish was an American character actor born in New York City. Naish was twice nominated for an Academy Award for film roles, and he later found fame in the title role of CBS Radio's Life With Luigi , which was also on CBS Television .Naish appeared on stage for several years...
as Papa Rudy Boray - Joan ChandlerJoan ChandlerJoan Chandler was an American actress who starred in several movies during the 1940s and 1950s, most notably Rope with James Stewart and Humoresque with Joan Crawford....
as Gina Romney - Tom D'Andrea as Phil Boray
- Peggy KnudsenPeggy KnudsenPeggy Knudsen was an American character actress.-Biography:Born Margaret Ann Knudsen in Duluth, Minnesota, she made her Broadway debut in My Sister Eileen. She began her film career in 1946 in A Stolen Life opposite Bette Davis...
as Florence Boray - Ruth Nelson as Mama Esther Boray
- Craig StevensCraig Stevens (actor)Craig Stevens was an American motion picture and television actor.-Early and personal life:Born Gail Shikles, Jr., in Liberty, Missouri, his father was a high school teacher....
as Monte Loeffler - Paul CavanaghPaul CavanaghPaul Cavanagh was an English film actor. He appeared in over 100 films between 1928 and 1959. He was born in Chislehurst and died in London from a heart attack....
as Mr. Victor Wright - Richard Gaines as Bauer - Paul's 1st producer
- John AbbottJohn AbbottSir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, PC, KCMG, QC was the third Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the office for seventeen months, from June 16, 1891 to November 24, 1892. - Life and work :...
as Rozner - conducts Nat.Inst.Orch. - Robert BlakeRobert Blake (actor)Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
as Paul Boray - child (as Bobby Blake) - Tommy Cook as Phil Boray - child
- Don McGuire as Teddy #2 - Prop. of Teddy's Bar
Production
The movie is the second adaptation of the novel, the first being the 19201920 in film
The year 1920 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 27 - The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks opens.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1920:U.S.A. unless stated*The $1,000,000 Reward...
silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
Humoresque (directed by Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage was an American film director and actor.-Biography:Frank Borzage's father, Luigi Borzaga, was born in Ronzone, in 1859. As a stonemason, he sometimes worked in Switzerland; he met his future wife, Maria Ruegg , where she worked in a silk factory...
). It was Crawford's first film after her Oscar-winning role in Mildred Pierce
Mildred Pierce
Mildred Pierce is a 1941 hardboiled novel by James M. Cain. It was made into an Oscar-winning 1945 film starring Joan Crawford and a 2011 Emmy-winning miniseries starring Kate Winslet.-Plot :...
, and her third for Warner Bros, after being dropped by MGM. Costumes for Humoresque were designed by Adrian
Adrian (costume designer)
Adrian Adolph Greenberg , most widely known as Adrian, was an American costume designer whose most famous costumes were for The Wizard of Oz and other Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films of the 1930s and 1940s. During his career, he designed costumes for over 250 films and his screen credits usually read as...
and Bernard Newman
Bernard Newman (designer)
Bernard Newman was head designer for Bergdorf Goodman and head costume designer for RKO Pictures. He designed costumes for some 35 movies, including costumes for Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball and Helen Broderick...
.
Music
Franz WaxmanFranz Waxman
Franz Waxman was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films....
orchestrated and conducted the score which features selections by Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
and Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee, Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, and Édouard Lalo
Édouard Lalo
Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo was a French composer.-Biography:Lalo was born in Lille , in northernmost France. He attended that city's music conservatory in his youth. Then, beginning at age 16, Lalo studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Berlioz's old enemy François Antoine Habeneck...
's Symphonie Espagnole
Symphonie Espagnole
The Symphonie espagnole in D minor, Op. 21, is a work for violin and orchestra by Édouard Lalo.-History:The work was written in 1874 for violinist Pablo de Sarasate, and premiered in Paris in February 1875....
. Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
served as musical advisor, and the film includes close-ups of his hands playing the violin.
Critical reception
Lawrence J. QuirkLawrence J. Quirk
Lawrence J. Quirk is an American writer, Hollywood reporter and film historian.-Career:Lawrence J. Quirk is the nephew of James R. Quirk, former editor and publisher of the now-defunct Photoplay magazine. He was an Army sergeant in Korea, a reporter for the Hearst papers, and a film magazine...
in Screen Stars (Retrospective Review) commented, "Humoresque is undoubtedly Crawford's finest performance...Her timing was flawless, her appearance lovely, her emotions depthful."
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
of 26 December 1946 observed, "[T]here is certainly nothing humorous about the lachrymose 'Humoresque' . . . . It is rather a mawkish lamentation upon the hopelessness of love between an art-dedicated violinist and a high-toned lady who lives for self alone. . . . [T]he Warner Brothers have wrapped this piteous affair in a blanket of soul-tearing music which is supposed to make it spiritually purgative. . . . The music, we must say, is splendid—and, if you will only shut your eyes so that you don't have to watch Mr. Garfield leaning his soulful face against that violin or Miss Crawford violently emoting, . . . you may enjoy it very much."
Awards and honors
Franz Waxman received an Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.Box office
The films budget was estimated to be around $2,164,000. The film fared well at the box office and grossed $3,399,000 and the film was hailed a success. With inflation in 2007 the gross is $35,737,750.In popular culture
Humoresque was parodied on the television show SCTVSecond City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
in 1981. The Joan Crawford role was played by Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
as Crawford, while the John Garfield role was played by violin virtuoso Eugene Fodor
Eugene Fodor
Eugene Nicholas Fodor, Jr. was the first American violinist to win the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.Fodor was born in Denver, Colorado. His first ten years of study were with Harold Wippler...
.
In 1998, pop star Madonna released a video for her single The Power of Good-Bye
The Power of Good-Bye
"The Power of Good-Bye" is a song written by American singer Madonna and Rick Nowels for Madonna's seventh album Ray of Light . It was produced by Madonna, William Orbit and Patrick Leonard, and received a positive reception from music critics...
which was based on several scenes from the movie.