boirin This was loosely based on the Henry Handel Richardson novel, 'Maurice Guest', which explored obsessive, destructive and unrequited love amid the backdrop of music students in Leipzig at the turn of the twentieth century. This film adaptation took huge liberties with the plot, played down or eliminated most of the characters, sanitized the sexuality and ditched the bleak ending (though happily so). Enough has been said here about Elizabeth Taylor's breathtaking gorgeousness, the lushness of the classical music score and the brilliant instrumental simulations by Vittorio Gassman and John Ericson, but not enough about Charles Vidor's direction, which keeps the film on a thoroughly entertaining, albeit melodramatic, path. The best part IMO is the last fifteen minutes or so, which takes a wrenching turn and builds the tension with a spectacular rendition of Rachmaninoff's Concerto 2 (by far the best version I've ever seen on screen). Ericson's performance here is amazing and almost runs away with the film. Last but not least, that hopelessly gorgeous ending!

James Hitchcock Louise Durant, the central player in this film, is what might be described as a classical groupie. She is a wealthy heiress who attaches herself to two handsome young classical musicians, both students at the Conservatoire in Zurich, in turn. The two men in her life are Paul (dark, violinist, Continental European although his precise nationality is never stated) and James (blond, pianist, American). The story falls into two acts. In Act I Louise falls in love with Paul, but their romance is short-lived because she cannot accept that the life of a classical musician involves a great deal of hard work which limits the time they can spend together.Fast forward to the beginning of Act II. A lot appears to have happened in the interval between the acts. We learn that Louise is now married to James (a relatively minor figure in Act I), that he has given up his musical career for her and that he is living off her money. These developments, however, do not appear to have brought him happiness because the main thing he spends Louise's money on is drink and he has become an alcoholic. Act II is the story of James's efforts to turn his life around, to kick his drink habit and to rediscover his love of music. Paul, however, has now reappeared in Louise's life and she must decide whether to elope with him or stay with her husband.Which way does she decide? I was going to say that I won't write a spoiler, but of course in the fifties the Hays Office effectively used to write the spoilers for the audience. Anyone with any knowledge of the requirements of the Production Code, which forbade happy endings for anyone guilty of marital infidelity, will be able to predict, long before the closing titles, exactly how the story will end.Elizabeth Taylor, at the height of her beauty, here experiments with a boyishly short haircut, and gets away with it. (This look may have been inspired by Audrey Hepburn, Hollywood's "new kid on the block" in 1954. Audrey was in fact three years older than Elizabeth, but it was the younger woman who had had a longer film career, going back to her days as a child star in the early forties). This is, however, far from being Taylor's best performance. Louise, by rights, should be someone we dislike- a selfish, manipulative woman who comes close to destroying James's musical career and would have destroyed Paul's had he not had enough sense to see through her- but Taylor does her best to make us like her, playing her as a conventional romantic heroine. She fails, of course; perhaps Taylor's own complex love life- at 22 she already had one divorce behind her- prevented her from realising just how emotionally destructive women like Louise can be in real life.This is not a film for anyone with no interest in classical music. Apart from one early scene where Paul is arguing with a conductor about the interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, the film does not go into the technicalities of the subject in any great depth, but we get to hear lengthy excerpts from the Tchaikovsky and from Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. Now I personally could listen to both these composers all day long, but I suspect that those who do not share my love of classical music will be reaching for the fast-forward button during these passages.The film is attractively shot in vivid colour, but the storyline and the dialogue rarely, if ever, rise above the level of a lurid and melodramatic soap opera. For Liz Taylor completists only. 5/10 (4/10 for the film itself, with a bonus point for the music).

mlamar-3 Like stacym said above, I think this was a very good film. While others have complained that the story is mediocre, I found Elizabeth Taylor's subtle eye movements and facial expressions intriguing, and the story changed enough that it kept me wondering what was going to happen next. Gassman and Ericson played their instruments so lifelike you almost thought they were playing them. Louis Calhern again provided a sophisticated performance as her distanced dad. In fact, I thought that the music was not as exceptional as the acting, although the selections were chosen to show off the virtuosity of the performers rather than for their beautiful melodies. (I am a Puccini and Lehar fan.) The actors were all impressive in their roles and should have received more awards than they did for their consummate collaboration.

Neil Doyle RHAPSODY is a typically lush romantic opus from MGM, conceived as a stunning tribute to the 22 year-old ELIZABETH TAYLOR and surrounding her with some melodious classic music from the two men in her life--JOHN ERICSON and VITTORIO GASSMAN.All women should have such romantic woes--torn as she is, between two handsome men with matinée idol looks while she watches on the sidelines dressed in smart outfits by Helen Rose, with sophisticated looks at the camera and everyone else in the cast. She is as poised as a marble statue and just as cold and beautiful.The tale is as wildly improbable as anything Joan Crawford ever did in lush B&W surroundings at Warner Bros. (a la HUMORESQUE), and the story itself is hardly more than routine, presenting Taylor as a spoiled young woman who mistreats men who are too immersed in their careers to notice she's around.But on the plus side, there's that glorious music and some very convincing finger work by Ericson on the piano and Gassman on the violin. They really look as if they're playing their instruments, and both of them are up to the acting demands of their less than dynamic roles.Taylor was certainly one of the most photogenic women who ever stepped before a camera, but it's a pity that her talent (at this stage) is not a match for her fabulous wardrobe and glossy, tremulous close-ups that have her torn between two men without ever ruining her make-up with real tears.Absurd fun, if only for the music and the decent performances, but actually a very routine romantic angle that is a mere trifle against a splendid background of passionate classical pieces.