Taylor's nastiest role EVER!
What a terrible film. And what a despicable human being Taylor is throughout the film. Despite looking beautiful (it is 1954, so the weight gain hasn't started yet as it would in the 60s), her character belongs on a good episode of Dr Phil. She is the typical victim that allows men to walk all over her, while walking over another man at the same time.
She plays Louise Durant, daughter of the wealthy Nicholas Durant (Louis Calhern), who in the beginning warns her not to fall for the womanizing musician Paul Bronte (Vittorio Gassman), as it is obvious from the first frame that he is more obsessed with his musical career then settling down with a clingy rich girl who doesn't seem to have much going in the brain department aside good taste in matching her handbags with the Helen Rose costumes she dons the whole time. Her pompous and sometimes cruelly blunt father is right: she's an idiot to think this man sees her as anything but a good time in the sack, but she ignores his warnings and drives off with him to Zurich at a music conservatory where he is finishing his final year as a impressive violinist. It's here she finds Paul too caught up in his own career, and sets her sights on another student, James Guest (John Ericson)- who is getting better and better in the pianist department.
When She discovers Paul is cheating on her, she vows never to return to the conservatory, but is persuaded by James to stay and "give him a try". She marries him, but only to make Paul jealous. When the French playboy returns to see what's up with his old classmates, he is even told by Louise "I never loved him. I'll divorce him right now to be with you." He smirks, knowing she's just a tool - and leaves again to do concerts, appearances, and rising success. Meanwhile James finally catches on that Louise has been lying to him about her affections the same way Paul has to her. And around and around we go. My friend and me turned off the film about twenty minutes before the conclusion because we were so disgusted with how Taylor's character behaved.
Often Taylor has claimed Gloria Wandrous, her character in Butterfield 8 (1960), was her most disappointing role, because she played a prostitute. But at least in that movie she played a PROFESSIONALLY polished prostitute, and was good at manipulating men. She had talents that went right into the rich millionaires' penthouses, and in the morning she was smart enough to steal their wives fur coats. Here, she tries out to be a pianist herself - and fails miserably as the instructor (and the audience) know the only reason she is trying out is so she can be 'in love'.
The role she SHOULD be ashamed of is her role in Rhapsody. It's such a trashy, lying, untrustworthy slut- and she really treats James harshly. In an earlier scene, he comes home to play the piano that she said he could use any time he wanted. But she wakes up, and cruelly tells him to leave and "give me the key". Who would want the keys to this burnt out hooker?
I can only hope the finale of the movie has Louise returning to her home in France, where her wise father (who saw right through her treacherous character) could help her find the error of her ways by getting her work in a local convent. Taylor, who again- always looked beautiful on screen during this time period, plays such a hatable woman that I didn't care anymore and wanted her burnt at the stake. Along with the conniving and dirtbag violinist she keeps falling back in love with, even though he's made it pretty clear that she's nothing but a notch on his bed post.
Rhapsody most likely slipped through the censors and memories of American audiences because Taylor was full speed ahead in a career that was already rising after Father of the Bride (1950) with Spencer Tracy, A Place in the Sun (1951) with Montgomery Clift, and Ivanhoe (1952)- and two years later she would do Giant (1956) with Rock Hudson and James Dean, and then earn four consecutive Oscar nominations with the dreary but prominent Raintree County (1957), poignant and groundbreaking Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Paul Newman, intense and daring Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Katharine Hepburn and Butterfield 8 (1960) with Eddie Fisher. And this was all before Cleopatra (1963) and her second Oscar winning work in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) with Richard Burton and Sandy Dennis.
A B film that's getting a much worse grade for a thin plot and despicable characters - minus the oh so wise father and the INCREDIBLE costume designs by Helen Rose, that should have been nominated as I don't think Ive seen Taylor in better wardrobe changes. She gets to wear over 60 different dresses- and each one compliments her better then the next. The colors, styles and waistlines deserved mention. Its the only thing redeeming this otherwise flat love story. The music is also not bad- but we can't believe it because the characters are off tune.
FINAL GRADE: D