- Actors: Esmond Knight, Jessie Matthews, Edmund Gwenn, Fay Compton
- Directors: Alfred Hitchcock
- Format: Black & White, NTSC, Full Screen, Dolby
- Region: All Regions
- Studio: FCE
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0038NPIUS
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 43,057 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Schani, Johan Strauss Jr., is forced by his father to forget music and to work in a bakery. Here he falls in love with Resi. The girl gets very jealous when a rich and beautiful contessa asks Schani to write a waltz for her. Schani writes and plays it, but he is always loyal to his girlfriend. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
This not as bad as its reputation suggests, not by a long way! Forget your ideas about a typical Hitchcock film and just enjoy a well-made light musical drama about the trials of the Strauss family, the rivalry between the father (Edmund Gwenn), successful composer and conductor, his son (Esmond Knight) who want to be a composer instead a baker, a romantic sub-plot involving ( Jessie Matthews) and (Fay Compton), climaxing with the first performance of 'The Blue Danube', all directed with Hitchcock's customary skill. The performances are good, and the recording is excellent. Those seeking to add this to their Hitchcock collection need not hesitate, unless they're allergic to good music.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
In Francois Truffaut's interview compilation Hitchcock refused to discuss this 1935 film. In fact it's rather enjoyable. The black and white photography is most pleasing and the simple story - about the stormy relationship between Johann Strauss and his son - is enlived by wall-to-wall Strauss on the soundtrack and some tricksy camera work which probably made the project almost bearable for Hitchcock - not the obvious choice to direct a musical biography!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
It's a fair bet that Waltzes From Vienna would be completely forgotten today if it weren't for its director, although even the notion of Alfred Hitchcock making a fluffy romantic musical comedy (co-written by his wife Alma Reville) about Johann Strauss the Younger trying to get his work published, his father's approval and marry the baker's daughter has only made it almost entirely forgotten, and only recalled as a brief side note to Hitchcock's career. That he thought it his worst film doesn't help. That said, taken on its own terms, this screen version of the `great success at the Alhambra, London' (which had originally boasted musical arrangements by Erich Wolfgang Korngold) is no worse than most Jessie Matthews musicals of the Thirties. Awfully, awfully well-spoken and coming over as a cross between Joyce Grenfell's prettier sister and a hamster, Matthews was Britain's biggest musical star of the day (a claim, it has to be said, somewhat akin to being Baffin Island's premier kangaroo boxer), but her character's insistence that Esmond Knight's distinctly uncomfortable Johann give up the music for a career in confectionary to keep him out of the clutches of Fay Compton's scheming countess marks her out as a selfish nag who'll probably make the poor bugger's life hell for years to come.
A fairly lavish production, there are a few amusing bits of business, such as the Count automatically assuming Junior is a servant and throwing his hat to him without looking, while Hitch throws in the odd directorial flourish in an attempt to keep himself interested, and Edmund Gwenn's vain, bitter and surprisingly nasty Strauss Senior adds some welcome darkness to the proceedings, but the most memorable thing about it is still the infamous scene where Strauss Jr composes The Blue Danube thanks to the rhythmic bread roll throwing and bagel stacking of the Ebersader bakers. Still, Universal's French DVD - available from Amazon.fr as 'Le Chant du Danube' and featuring English soundtrack with removeable subtitles - boasts excellent picture quality and even includes one of Hitchcock's silent melodramas, 1927's Ivor Novello vehicle Downhill complete with musical score.
A fairly lavish production, there are a few amusing bits of business, such as the Count automatically assuming Junior is a servant and throwing his hat to him without looking, while Hitch throws in the odd directorial flourish in an attempt to keep himself interested, and Edmund Gwenn's vain, bitter and surprisingly nasty Strauss Senior adds some welcome darkness to the proceedings, but the most memorable thing about it is still the infamous scene where Strauss Jr composes The Blue Danube thanks to the rhythmic bread roll throwing and bagel stacking of the Ebersader bakers. Still, Universal's French DVD - available from Amazon.fr as 'Le Chant du Danube' and featuring English soundtrack with removeable subtitles - boasts excellent picture quality and even includes one of Hitchcock's silent melodramas, 1927's Ivor Novello vehicle Downhill complete with musical score.
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