I've always loved the music of Johann Strauss. Years ago I drove to a small theater in South Milwaukee to see the 1938 MGM movie *The Great Waltz*, a schmaltzy but well-made concoction with the inimitable Meliza Korjus and the very aggravating Louise Reiner that was very loosely based on Strauss's life.
Also years ago I bought a recording of the 1949 musical *The Great Waltz*, on which this movie is very loosely based. Like *The Song of Norway*, which had been a huge success on Broadway in 1944, mostly because of its elaborate dance numbers, "The Great Waltz" was a Robert Wright/George Forrest concoction that used music by the composer whose biography was more or less the subject of the show.
I never saw that show, so I don't know how similar this 1972 movie is to it. What I do know, however, is that this movie is a lavishly staged disaster. The script, what there is of it, is all cliches. (The scene where Strauss comes up with the idea for *Tales from the Vienna Woods* is stolen, poorly, from the 1938 movie.) It is interrupted repeatedly for no clear reason by a series of elaborate but not very interesting dance numbers. (Imagine an unimaginative *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers*.)
Worse still, most of the characters are not likable. Strauss Jr. comes off as an unfeeling womanizer, like his father before him. Strauss' wife isn't likable enough to earn our sympathies, even though he is not good to her.
In short, there's really nothing to like in this movie other than Strauss's music, which is well performed, and the scenery and costumes. (Much of the movie was evidently filmed in Austria.) The 1938 *Great Waltz* is not a great movie and has more than its share of chiches, but it's still a lot more enjoyable than this sad remake.
Also years ago I bought a recording of the 1949 musical *The Great Waltz*, on which this movie is very loosely based. Like *The Song of Norway*, which had been a huge success on Broadway in 1944, mostly because of its elaborate dance numbers, "The Great Waltz" was a Robert Wright/George Forrest concoction that used music by the composer whose biography was more or less the subject of the show.
I never saw that show, so I don't know how similar this 1972 movie is to it. What I do know, however, is that this movie is a lavishly staged disaster. The script, what there is of it, is all cliches. (The scene where Strauss comes up with the idea for *Tales from the Vienna Woods* is stolen, poorly, from the 1938 movie.) It is interrupted repeatedly for no clear reason by a series of elaborate but not very interesting dance numbers. (Imagine an unimaginative *Seven Brides for Seven Brothers*.)
Worse still, most of the characters are not likable. Strauss Jr. comes off as an unfeeling womanizer, like his father before him. Strauss' wife isn't likable enough to earn our sympathies, even though he is not good to her.
In short, there's really nothing to like in this movie other than Strauss's music, which is well performed, and the scenery and costumes. (Much of the movie was evidently filmed in Austria.) The 1938 *Great Waltz* is not a great movie and has more than its share of chiches, but it's still a lot more enjoyable than this sad remake.