Schubert Becomes The Film Hero Of The Season

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 30, 1 February 1935, Page 17

Schubert Becomes The Film Hero Of The Season

Two English Films and an American One. Turn Composer Into a Romantic Swain |

(By

Our Film Critic

Franz Schubert, probably the most "unromantic" of any composer, has suddenly found himself the greatest film hero of this or any other season. Two films of Schubert’s life have been made in England-"Blossom Time," with Richard Tauber, and "The Unfinished Symphony," with Hans Jaray. A thir] has been made at. Hollywood and is- called "Love Time." The star is Nils Asther.

Undoubtedly the best of the three films is "Blossom Time,’ which is, at the moment, enjoying a most successful season in New Zealand. : In this version of Schubert’s life the composer is shown as having a hopeless pussion for the daughter of a dancing teacher. In "The Unfinished Symphony" he is jilted by a count’s daughter. In "Love Time’ he nearly loses PP PPadd ddd

ti i i it i i i i i ii i i i i li iii aii his sweetheart because she turns out to be the daughter of a nobleman. But in’ this film he’ is treated more kindly because’ he gets the girl in the last reel! lf poor Franz Schubert could come back from the grave in which he has lain for more than 70 years, he would ve. astounded at the pretty picture film | gcenarists have made of him. Accord-

ing to a writer in an BPnglish paper, there is little reason to believe that his life left him any time for romance. He left behind him a great mass of music, the composition of which must. have kept him busy from early manhood on-. ward. Yet, according to the film con-.. ception of him, his life must have been ; "one damn thing ufter~ another." The completion of "Blossom Time" beat "The Unfinished Symphony" by aweek or two, with the American version still farther behind. And it is. a, strange coincidence that the Arierican~ Schubert, Nils Asthey. is now at Elstree working on a film in the very studios’ where "Blossom Time" was made. It has been suggested that he should have remarked "Pardon my Schubert" as he. reported for duty. Asbther is playing one of the leading roles in "Abdul Hamid," one of B.1.P.’s most ambitious films to date. But this eu plication and triplication of tLe one theme is somewhat confusing to the picturegoer who believes implicitly in what he sees. Two of the worst examples’ of this were. the conflicting versions of the life of Catherine the Great-the English one made by Alexander .Korda and starring Elizabeth Bergner, the Hollywood one made by Josef. Von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich. , In the case of the Schubert films, Hollywood definitely comes off third pest. "Love Time" is set in a small town Vienna, and little use has been made of the Schubert music. The result is that the story appears terribly thin, Richard Tauber, the -"Blossom Time" Schubert, is far nearer the accurate conception of the composer than the more handsome Schuberts of the other two versions.