Song Without End

Director: George Cukor, Charles Vidor George Cukor

Overview

Hoping to recapture the success of its 1945 Frederic Chopin biopic A Song to Remember, Columbia Pictures concocted the 1960 Technicolor costume drama Song Without End. Dirk Bogarde is cast as musical genius Franz Liszt. Bogarde's piano scenes are dubbed with another's singing voice, but this hardly matters in that the film is preoccupied with Liszt's infamous romantic entanglements. The crux of the matter is Liszt's desire to wed the already married Russian princess Carolyne (Capucine), which will necessitate an unpleasant breakup with his current lover, Countess Marie (Genevieve Page). Director Charles Vidor died after only a few weeks on the picture; he was replaced by George Cukor, who graciously insisted that Vidor be billed in letters larger than his. The chief selling point of Song Without End is its wall-to-wall music; the film won an Oscar for "best musical arrangement."

Product Details

Release Date:	08/16/2010
UPC:	0043396359567
Original Release:	1960
Rating:	PG
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Sales rank:	3,447

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Dirk Bogarde	Franz Liszt
Capucine	Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein
Geneviève Page	Countess Marie D'Agoult,Actor
Patricia Morison	Georges Sand
Ivan Desny	Prince Nicholas
Martita Hunt	Grand Duchess
Lou Jacobi	Potin
Lyndon Brook	Richard Wagner
Walter Rilla	Archbishop
Alexander Davion	Chopin
Albert Rueprecht	Prince Felix Lichnowsky
Marcel Dalio	Chelard
Hans Unterkirchner	Czar
Emund Erlandsen	Thalberg
Katherine Squire	Anna Liszt
Walter Rilia	Archbishop
Hans Unterkirchen	Czar
Edmund Erlandsen	Thalberg
Morris Stoloff	Composer
Harry Sukman	Composer

Technical Credits

Oscar Millard

George Cukor	Director
Charles Vidor	Director
Oscar Millard	Screenwriter
William Goetz	Producer

Editorial Reviews

By 1960, the kind of old fashioned classical composer bio that is Song Without End was a strange anomaly. Like countless Hollywood biopics before it, Song plays fast and loose with the truth in its retelling of the life and loves of the brilliant Franz Liszt. As is usually the case with these rewrites, the "new" story isn't so very new and isn't really an improvement on what actually happened, but Song does manage to be one of the better examples of this genre (and a far sight better than the still-to-come Ken Russell take on Liszt, the bizarre Lisztomania.) Song benefits from a lovely and intelligent performance from Dirk Bogarde as Liszt, who even manages to fake the piano playing convincingly. He's not given a lot of character depth to explore, but Bogarde makes the surface characteristics quite interesting enough by themselves to carry things along nicely. Capucine looks elegant and composed; she doesn't contribute a great deal of acting to the role, but her physical presence helps a great deal. The film is more than a bit choppy, most likely due to the fact that it was directed by two different people after the original director died; this lack of a cohesive feel is damaging, but not fatal. And the film benefits from the thrilling performances of Liszt's music, of which there is plenty.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler