I just saw this film on TCM - and it was KH's most lovely performance. She had a feminine strength/fragility that I've never seen in her other films. I haven't see all her film, but I have seen about 10 of her most famous - and this should rank up there. She had such love for her husband - until the end of her life. AMAZING.
shareThat speech to Liszt when she was replaying (properly) the "song of love" was amazing. "Just love, Franz," she said. Some of the script was dripping in schmaltz but there were also many surprises like that speech, and the flashes of humor (they had four writers, I think, on it).
share"and it was KH's most lovely performance. She had a feminine strength/fragility that I've never seen in her other films."
Agree....!!!! Interesting film, hope they show it again as I missed the last part....
"The Flagon With The Dragon Has The Brew Which Is True"
I'm no fan of Katherine Hepburn, but I found her performance surprisingly under-stated and charming. It was also nice to see Robert Walker in a good-guy role. I didn't mean to see this film at all -- it just happened to be on and I was in the room. It's not a great film at all, and the idea of a woman giving up a second chance at love in order to be loyal to a dead guy might strike some people as charming, but even so, it's a film worth watching on a rainy day. I sure wish there was some trivia about it -- I would really like to read more.
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I take it most of you have not seen many KH films. She displayed this
kind of vulnerability and understated quality in other (and far
superior) films, including "Summertime." This film was slow and dull.
I used to think talented Robert Walker was troubled by his divorce with
Jennifer Jones. I think he really drank himself to death over the
stifling studio system and terrible scripts like this. Awful.
Robert Walker was accidentally given a medication that killed him do to his drinking problem ,he did not drink himself to death.,as for KH in mother parts for her were far and few and this film shows why.
shareI like Katharine Hepburn in almost everything and yes she is wonderful here. I think people find this an atypical Hepburn performance because it's in her 40s/50s period when she's usually either the sharp, aggressive partner of Spencer Tracy or the lovestarved spinster of The African Queen, Summertime, and The Rainmaker.
Re wanting trivia, of course these were real people and you can find out lots about Clara, Schumann, Brahms, etc. on line. The movie itself has several pages in a number of books such as THE GREAT ROMANTIC FILMS and of course THE FILMS OF KATHARINE HEPBURN.
The basic facts in this story are all true and surprisingly follow closely the lives of Clara, Schumann, and Brahms. In real life however, Schumann attempted suicide and was locked up for the rest of his life. He did not collapse at the podium. Schumann most likely was schizophrenic and one of his sons died of the same genetic disease. Clara Schumann was one of the most remarkable women of her time, a concert famed pianist for more than 60 years. She was the first concert pianist to never use sheet music in her recitals. And I think Hepburn, Henreid, and Walker are all very good in this underrated film.
shareI read that Schumann asked to be locked up in an institution and when they complied, the first thing he said the next morning was to tell people his wife was dead. They told him that no, she was fine and then he relaxed and was happy--he'd locked himself up fearing he would kill Clara. Such a sad sad thing to plague such amazing talent. Paul Henreid was great in the role. It's sad that Clara couldn't give in to the relationship with Brahms--he too was great--a real love triangle that tortured their hearts as much as the illness and art they wanted to express.
sharePeople don't die of schizophrenia, though. Plus that's not what Robert had. His mental condition was caused by syphilis.
He knew he had it, he wrote about it in his diary. The thing is doctors knew about syphilis at the time but thought it was "cured" when the lesions disappear. They didn't know it has a dormant second stage, then comes back later in life causing nervous system & brain inflammations that look like mood disorders, hearing loss, audio hallucinations, etc.
As far as Ludwig Schumann he could have died of the conditions in the institution (more like a prison). He begged Clara to take him out of there but the doctors had her talked into "he needs to be here". I've read descriptions that could be anything, epilepsy, ADD, who knows. Contemporary accounts say he didn't become "odd" until he was a teenager. That could be a lot of things.
Well, the city's being built and I'm winning this game. So don't interrupt us with trifles.
Yes indeed, syphilis was rampant. Imagine the time, before the 20th century, when infectious diseases and the benefit of hygiene were poorly understood, before effective chemotherapy and vaccines. Syphilis, TB, dysentery, cholera, typhus, diphtheria and on and on, all over the place. It must have been terrible.
shareYes, and mostly before germ theory was accepted. A lot of people didn't want to believe in germs because it sounded like believing in fairies. Tiny invisible creatures who traveled on the wind or got in your food -- who could hurt you or make you sick? Who believes in that superstitious kind of thing? In medieval days that was exactly how demons and witches were described. But it's the Enlightenment now, right folks? Well, micro-organisms visible only with a microscope were known to exist since the 1760s or so, but the idea of contagion was rejected by both science and government until Pasteur. Several doctors before him had proposed it, like the obstetrician who started washing his hands real well before delivering kids, but it didn't catch on.
And any of these things could have affected Ludwig and could have been a factor in Robert's health. Plus that constant "A" ringing in his ears could have been tinnitus. That could have driven him crazy right there.
Well, the city's being built and I'm winning this game. So don't interrupt us with trifles.