Humoresque
by Jean Negulesco
List Price:
Our Price: $5.64
You Save: $14.34 (72%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.00 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: J. Carrol Naish, Joan Chandler, Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Oscar LevantDirector: Jean Negulesco
Brand: CRAWFORD,JOAN
Cinematographer: Ernest Haller
Editor: Rudi Fehr
Producer: Jack L. Warner
Producer: Jerry Wald
Writer: Clifford Odets
Writer: Fannie Hurst
Writer: Zachary Gold
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 125 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Humoresque
Movie Review: If you don't cry during this film, you're made of plastic
Summary: 5 Stars
Joan Crawford had it. Star quality. When I first saw her in 'Grand Hotel' I was surprised how much I was watching her character instead of the equally riveting character played by the great Greta Garbo. Both were STARS. But Crawford was able to project a different kind of sensuality than Garbo - a vulnerability, a plucky girl-next-door quality.
In Humoresque, an older Crawford was still able to achieve this level of performance paired off with the younger male star. Let's face it - women have a great advantage acting (perhaps women are always acting) - besides being better looking than men, they can emote more without going out of gender role. A distinct advantage vis-a-vis men who must restrict their emotional range or be accused of over acting.
It's a horrible thing to fall in love. And that is just what Crawford's character does. Falls in love with the worst of all possible choices: a musician. Musicians only love music. The music in the film is worth the price of admission alone. Who amongst you would throw the first stone at a fine violinist playing 'Zigeunerwisser' or any of the other fine war horses of the classical violin repertoire?
She falls in love with the young 'artist of the month' whom she offers to help jumpstart his career, renting a concert hall for his first recital. She is married to a wealthy but understanding man who loves her but lets her do what she wants - drinking, philandering ... Most men do what she wants and accept her ridicule. The character of the musician does not; he's a tough New Yorker who gives her as good as he gets - and she finds herself loving him despite herself.
Love is madness, and when he starts being successful with his concert tours but neglects to phone her for weeks, she falls apart emotionally. It is profoundly humiliating to realize someone else can hurt you badly simply by declining to keep in touch. Silence is the perfect expression of contempt, isn't it? She drinks, she mopes about her 'cottage' in the Hamptons, she is crazy in love with a man who doesn't seem to reciprocate her feelings.
In our time, she might see her doc and get a prescription for Zoloft to be rid of the lovesick blues and of obsessive thoughts of him. But this is before Thorazine, even, and she's just out of luck there. So she drinks. Drinking was the preferred way to deaden the unbearable pain of rejection in love in the days before designer drugs were available from your neighborhood spice man.
To complicate things, her musician had an old girlfriend from the conservatory where he studied music as a young man. Additionally, there was the dreaded 'american mom' in full armor. She just had to tell this grown son of hers, repeatedly, that the woman he finally fell in love with was no good. She even slaps him upside the head as he shows her around his ritzy new apartment with a view; it seems he has too many portraits of Crawford's character in view. That's the way, Mom. Make your boy marry a good girl, like you, maybe.
Meanwhile, and I just love a line the character played by Oscar Levant comes up with at her cottage in the Hamptons, "You're not the kind of woman who lets her husband get in the way of her marriage." A lot funnier said than written. Levant did a lot of great piano playing in the film, dropping dozens of one liners like that. He almost stole several acts. This is a very forties film. In black and white. Whatever happened to the colorization process? Oh, well.
Finally, Mom tells the rich girl to keep her hands off her son. And dutifully, Crawford's character retreats to her cottage in the Hamptons, gets drunk one last time, wades into the surf in a stunning, shimmering black cocktail dress and is never seen again. I told you love was dangerous!
Her lover, after cancelling one measly concert out of despair at her death, decides not to ruin a promising career and returns to the concert stage. Men! Emotional IQs of 30, at most. Well, that's all folks. If your eyes were still dry at the end of this film, you're safe - you'll never fall in love.
Summary of Humoresque
A glamorous but alcoholic socialite, trapped in a marriage to an older man, finds herself falling in love with the young musician whose performance she is underwriting.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 14-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD
The greatness of John Garfield was that he was a tough guy who wasn't afraid to wear his sensitivity on his sleeve. What makes this such a great film is that director Jean Negulesco and his two writers (including Clifford Oddets) construct a complex web of ambiguity around Garfield's own torment. He's a violin virtuoso from the slums of New York who rises to the top with the assistance of socialite Joan Crawford (who was never better). There's a sexual intensity to his art that she wants to possess, and there's a vulnerability behind her lacerating façade that he wants to expose. They play each other like a couple of virtuosos, stripping each other's spirit away. What helps transcend this depression-era class struggle is its cool sophistication. It's a sublime noir about loneliness. Everyone knows his dream has hit a dead end, except Garfield. He refuses to give up, even after his soul is long gone. --Bill Desowitz
Similar DVD Movies
All About EveFox; Release date: 2003-01-14; DVD
Best price: $5.92
Price in other shops:
The Women (Keepcase)by Claire Boothe Luce
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
The LetterWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-01-11; DVD
Best price: $6.87
Price in other shops:
Sudden FearKino International; Release date: 2003-09-02; DVD
Best price: $15.90
Price in other shops:
Strait JacketSony; Release date: 2002-03-12; DVD
Best price: $8.17
Price in other shops:
Daisy Kenyon (Fox Film Noir)Fox; Release date: 2008-03-11; DVD
Best price: $7.01
Price in other shops:
Mr. SkeffingtonWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $11.54
Price in other shops:
Mildred Pierce (Keepcase)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops:
The Damned Don't CryWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops:
PossessedCRAWFORD,JOAN; Release date: 2005-06-14; DVD
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: