Strange Fascination

A well directed, well written and sad film like this calls to mind the works of Max Ophüls and Stefan Zweig, it's the same kind of deep melancholy pervading the whole work, giving it a dimension of bottomless despair. Josef von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel" bringing Marlene Dietrich to Hollywood also comes to mind, it's the same kind of story, an accomplished master in his field is brought down by his own strange fascination with a cheap nightclub dancer, who actually originally is intent on bringing him down and sabotaging his concert, but instead she gets a kick out of his fantastic Chopin interpretations although she understands nothing about classical music, and he commits the mistake of taking her seriously and falling for her, making of himself a self-destructive idiot. Of course he is foolish, getting carried away by his jealousy of a woman who could be his daughter, but he just can't help it, and Hugo Haas makes a very convincing character of a great man at a loss against his own weakness. Almost all Hugo Haas' films have the character of a sad pathetic self-revelation and self-confession, and here he plays the lead in his own film of such a case. It is extremely sympathetic in all its pathetic deplorability, but the case is saved by the fact that he actually keeps smiling. And the music, like in all Haas' films, is absolutely exquisite in its blend of the highest quality and the lowest vulgarity.

Hugo Haas's personal story and how it relates to this film is undeniably moving, but unfortunately the tale he created didn't have much of a spark to it, and if you're looking for noir you're probably barking up the wrong tree, this is a melodrama.

There is a certain pathos to the parallel stories involving acts of friendship which are accompanied by feelings, both in the rich woman (Mona Barrie) who sponsors the Czech pianist (Haas himself), and in his befriending the showgirl who's down on her luck (Cleo Moore). In both cases, it's the pianist who is the object of affection, but it's only with the younger women that he gradually begins to reciprocate. When she moves into his apartment, it's made clear he's like a grandfather to her, so that when they later marry we can be assured per the Production Code that their relationship was platonic beforehand, neutering what might have been wonderfully scandalous. The only flash of life for me was when she was swinging her hips in the kitchen, imagining her next musical number.

The film lumbers through the ensuing melodrama when unsurprisingly they don't just live happily ever after, but it all felt pretty staid, even the jealousy that develops when his career falters and she wants to return to work with a guy who looks like he's meant more to her than just a boss. This is one I liked seeing more because of Hugo Haas's life than the actual film, speaking of which, it was a nice touch to see his wife Maria Bibikov as Nurse Peterson towards the end.

Hugo Haas was a middle-aged character actor who began writing, producing and starring in (though playing second fiddle to glamorous blondes) low-budget films in the 1950's. His first two films as "auteur" starred Beverly Michaels but it was his seven collaborations with beautiful Cleo Moore that are better remembered today. STRANGE FASCINATION was their first film together and one of the more conservative, less lurid of the bunch, a fairly conventional drama of a renown concert pianist (Haas) who becomes attracted to and marries a nightclub dancer (Moore) which starts him on the road to ruin. A few years later, Moore's character would have been a bad girl who took him for everything he had, here she's rather sweet girl who is really not responsible for his problems. Since the melodrama here is low key this is one of the duller Moore/Haas romps but Cleo looks close to her most beautiful with a pageboy hairstyle and cute clothes and for movie buffs there's 1930's starlet Mona Barrie in a featured part.

I happen to find these Hugo Haas-Cleo Moore films entertaining.

Haas was a famous actor in his native Czechoslovakia until he had to flee the Nazis. Once in America, he became a director and a writer of B movies usually starring a gorgeous blond.

The gorgeous blond in this case is Cleo Moore. Paul is an up and coming concert pianist with a sponsor (Mona Barrie). One night he drops into a bar while a dance routine is in progress, and makes too much noise as far as the female dancer Margo (Moore) is concerned. So, similar to the last film I saw them in, she sets out to ruin his life.

She attends one of his concerts and instead becomes enamored of his music. Slowly but surely she wields her way into his life, and the two marry.

Margo goes along with Paul on his concert tour. It's highly successful until it abruptly stops due to a flooding situation. Unfortunately, in part thanks to Margo, Paul is flat broke. And he can't depend on his female sponsor to help him.

This is where the film for me goes off the rails. The guy hits the skids in like five minutes. If this were Van Cliburn, would the cancellation of one concert cause total destruction? Suddenly he's a big nobody. When Margo tries to work, he becomes jealous and possessive and refuses to let her, mainly because she's a flirt.

It goes on from there. Haas is a very warm actor, and he gives us a sympathetic if unreasonable character.

Moore does a good job and looks very glamorous. It's hard to decide if she loves Paul or was just using him all along. I think she does care about him, but they're both suffering.

Very nice ending.

Hugo Haas is a famous European piano virtuoso who's brought to the States by wealthy widow Mona Barrie. Haas goes on a concert tour where he meets dancer Cleo Moore, and they end up getting married. As Haas struggles to break thorugh in the States, he also struggles to keep both Moore and Barrie happy. But Barrie isn't crazy about Haas's marriage and cuts off her financial support. And when Moore is also thinking about going back to her old dance partner, Haas gets desperate and thinks about collecting the insurance on his hands, somehow...

This was director, writer, actor and producer Hugo Haas ('Pickup') and Cleo Moore's ('On Dangerous Ground') first of 7 collaborations. Moore is far less of a femme fatale in this one than their subsequent movies, but Haas plays essentially the same role as in most of the other ones (ditto in his movies with Beverly Michaels), a 'simple' man who gets involved with the wrong woman and ends up in a downward spiral. Noone can accuse Haas of having too much talent as a writer, director or actor, but as with the title of this movie, he's strangely fascinating to watch. In some close-up's it almost as if you can see him thinking about how to portray emotions. In any case, and for whatever reason, with Haas I don't mind it, I find him very likeable somehow.

Haas's movies are almost invariably low budget affairs, but he does a nice job here with limited means, with a surprising high amount of sets. And experienced DoP Paul Ivano ('The Shanghai Gesture', 'Black Angel') also added a bit of noir aesthetic to this movie, unfortunately not a lot tho. But this is not one of Haas's best efforts, also because Moore's character is nowhere near the sultry and sleazy characters she would portray in her later movies under Haas. It's a decent noir-ish melodrama, but no need to go out of your way to see this one.