Humoresque 1946

Joan Crawford made this lush over the top melodrama right after her Oscar winning performance in Mildred Pierce, and for me this is the last film of hers that she still looked stunning and before she became a gorgon. In this romantic saga as I said she is still gorgeous and the beautiful deep black and white cinematography by Ernest Haller shows off her beauty in deep close-ups and highlights in light and dark. Her look is strictly late 40's (even though its suppose to be the 30's) and she is dressed up by Adrian to the hilt in glittery gowns with her trade mark wide shoulder pads. She glistens and acts up a storm playing a rich bitch society dame who supports the arts and from what we can tell the artists as well.

In a flashback we meet the Boray family, tastefully Jewish struggling at their neighborhood grocery store led by papa J.Carrol Nash and mama Ruth Nelson and the three little Boray's including the adorable Robert Blake as the young Paul who longs for a violin instead of a baseball bat for his birthday and thanks to mama bear gets it. Thus we start on the musical career and journey of Paul Borary now grown up and played by John Garfield all tightly wound up and sexy. Garfield who was 33 at the time of the film was I thought a little too old to be playing a struggling classical violinist but not too old to have a torrid and intense romance with Crawford.

However he is still great to watch because of his smoldering good looks and terrific acting. Joan is married to a wishy washy Paul Cavanagh who is hard to read. Is he a closeted gay married man who accepts Joan's parading around with young handsome men because he is off screen and off the story also parading around with young handsome men. Its 1946 so everything is beneath and behind close doors including the sex between Garfield and Crawford which is presented to us as the cliche and overused crashing ocean wave scene where both stars are fully clothed.

Also in the film and unwelcomed by me is the annoying out of place Oscar Levant as Garfield's life long pal and fellow musician who met Garfield when he was 11. This age difference between them is never mentioned but glares out at us. There is trouble at hand between Garfield's angry mom over his relationship with Joan and serves as a side dish to the main events of Garfield becoming a great big musical star, and taking the classical music scene and Joan by storm. His playing of the violin is one of the fun things in the film and it was done by the young violist Issac Stern and the setting up and filming of Garfield's playing was complex and difficult to film and is a great behind the scenes story. There's lots of music of course in the movie which more or less is used to underline the romantic and melodramatic goings on including a soaring Tristan and Isolde by Wagner used at the end of the film for Joan's final exit. The screenplay was co-written by Clifton Odets and directed by Jean Negulesco who had a long career and was no stranger to ripe “women's movies” and melodramas a list that he should not be ashamed of.