For those who love classical music and ballet, this is a must. For those hoping for a musical with some lively song and dance numbers and a fun story, choose a Betty Grable or Doris Day movie from the same year. The most upbeat the music is the men's chorus singing "The Chantacleer" in the background after Tamara Toumanova's solo ballet number.
Audiences got to see Doris Day performing that number the same year in Warner Brothers' much livelier "By the Light of the Silvery Moon". Toumanova plays earlier Russian ballet star Anna Pavlova, being sought after by real life producer Sol Hurok, played sincerely by David Wayne, with a young Anne Bancroft as his wife Emma.
Already popular at the Met when he started on Broadway in "South Pacific", Ezio Pinza attempted film stardom briefly and unsuccessfully. Here, he's great on stage as Feodor Chaliapin, but off stage, he's a real pill. Byron Palmer slightly resembles MGM's Mario Lanza, and is dubbed by tenor star Jan Peerce. Roberta Peters of course provides her own singing voice as another diva.
While the film is beautiful to look at and filled with some great musical and dance moments, it's very corny at times and you have to wonder how they even got enough story to fill out the running time. But with most big musicals of the times either coming from Broadway or trying to emulate it, this was a nice effort at high brow, and yet appealed to the lower brow, or as Jose Ferrer in silly moment in "Deep in My Heart" referred to his character of Sigmund Romberg as a middle brow. No middling movie though. A unique later effort for director Mitchell Leissen, and quite unlike most of his earlier movies.
Audiences got to see Doris Day performing that number the same year in Warner Brothers' much livelier "By the Light of the Silvery Moon". Toumanova plays earlier Russian ballet star Anna Pavlova, being sought after by real life producer Sol Hurok, played sincerely by David Wayne, with a young Anne Bancroft as his wife Emma.
Already popular at the Met when he started on Broadway in "South Pacific", Ezio Pinza attempted film stardom briefly and unsuccessfully. Here, he's great on stage as Feodor Chaliapin, but off stage, he's a real pill. Byron Palmer slightly resembles MGM's Mario Lanza, and is dubbed by tenor star Jan Peerce. Roberta Peters of course provides her own singing voice as another diva.
While the film is beautiful to look at and filled with some great musical and dance moments, it's very corny at times and you have to wonder how they even got enough story to fill out the running time. But with most big musicals of the times either coming from Broadway or trying to emulate it, this was a nice effort at high brow, and yet appealed to the lower brow, or as Jose Ferrer in silly moment in "Deep in My Heart" referred to his character of Sigmund Romberg as a middle brow. No middling movie though. A unique later effort for director Mitchell Leissen, and quite unlike most of his earlier movies.