I have to say that I wasn’t all that looking forward to this romantic melodrama – in view of the fact that it bore the triple threat of classical music, travelogue aspects and a syrupy leading lady in June Allyson! However, director Sirk’s typically glossy handling smooths over much that is icky within this type of film; furthermore, male lead Rossano Brazzi is well-cast as the brooding conductor with a mad wife (Marianne Koch, from A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS [1964]!) – looked after by sympathetic aristocratic relative Francoise Rosay – who tries to console himself with ingénue Allyson (she’s unaware of this set-up, while being herself pursued by doctor/childhood friend Keith Andes). Actually, it’s this element – redolent of “Jane Eyre” – which gives the film its substance; interestingly, while Koch’s character only really emerges during the second half, she’s given a couple of powerful/moving confrontation scenes with Allyson (who even saves her from suicide at one point).
INTERLUDE (a remake, as were a number of Sirk’s famed Ross Hunter collaborations, of the Oscar-winning WHEN TOMORROW COMES [1939] – based on a story by, of all people, thriller expert James M. Cain!) doesn’t wholly escape cliché, however: while initially gruff towards the heroine, Brazzi then tells Allyson he had noticed her immediately and, to make amends, takes the girl sightseeing (the film naturally makes the most of its attractive European locations) and, later, after a romantic picnic is disrupted by a thunderstorm, the couple get to spend the night in a cottage of his conveniently situated nearby. Other resistible ingredients are Jane Wyatt’s mercifully brief appearance as Allyson’s eccentric superior at work (a library within the American Embassy in Monaco), the way most patrons are seen gushing at Brazzi’s talent (he’s merely a conductor, for cryin’ out loud, not a composer or a musical performer!) and, of course, the obligatory title song. By the way, this old-fashioned plot would turn up on the screen yet again – in Britain but under the same title – in 1968 and that version has the benefit of an intriguing cast (Oskar Werner, Donald Sutherland, John Cleese and Derek Jacobi)!
INTERLUDE (a remake, as were a number of Sirk’s famed Ross Hunter collaborations, of the Oscar-winning WHEN TOMORROW COMES [1939] – based on a story by, of all people, thriller expert James M. Cain!) doesn’t wholly escape cliché, however: while initially gruff towards the heroine, Brazzi then tells Allyson he had noticed her immediately and, to make amends, takes the girl sightseeing (the film naturally makes the most of its attractive European locations) and, later, after a romantic picnic is disrupted by a thunderstorm, the couple get to spend the night in a cottage of his conveniently situated nearby. Other resistible ingredients are Jane Wyatt’s mercifully brief appearance as Allyson’s eccentric superior at work (a library within the American Embassy in Monaco), the way most patrons are seen gushing at Brazzi’s talent (he’s merely a conductor, for cryin’ out loud, not a composer or a musical performer!) and, of course, the obligatory title song. By the way, this old-fashioned plot would turn up on the screen yet again – in Britain but under the same title – in 1968 and that version has the benefit of an intriguing cast (Oskar Werner, Donald Sutherland, John Cleese and Derek Jacobi)!