"Ein Herz voll Musik" is a West German German-language (the English and Italian parts are minimal) mix between comedy, music (as the title says) and romance and this 85-minute film was released back in 1955, so it has its 65th anniversary this year already. The writer and director is Robert A. Stemmle, which surprised me a bit because I mostly associate him with more serious stuff. One of his biggest successes as a filmmaker was even nominated at the BAFTAs, but then again when taking a closer look at his body of work, it becomes obvious that he also made many lighter films that maybe do not have too much to say about history or quality character writing. This is one of them. The fact that lead actor Vico Torriani's character is called Vico Hasenpfot is really self-explanatory. In terms of the fact that this could really happen in a comedy film only, but also from a critical perspective because, hands down, it really isn't too funny. And it is still funnier than almost everything else from this film to be honest. It felt really shoddy and lacking attention to detail and I must say that did surprise me given the fact that an experienced filmmaker like Stemmle was in charge here. As for the cast, while being a big film buff, I must say I am not too familiar with most of the actors. Vico Torriani is the exception of course. He was a big star back then and also stayed it for a while when he moved on to television hosting afterwards. You could say a bit he is the Swiss response to Peter Alexander. But to me just a poor man's version as he does not seem to have too muchn range. At least when it comes to acting and charisma. He physically looks more like Elvis, the South European type, which is also explained by his name. There clearly must be some Italian ancestry there. I was actually a bit surprised he seems to be a German native.
Another cast member I recognized at least from the name is Ruth Stephan, who sadly did not get particularly old. Shhe palys the love interest obviously, so the two "big names" (Torriani more than her) are at the center of the story of course. She looked charming I can't deny that. And probably she did not give a worse performance than Vico. But this alone cannot keep this film from becoming a disappointment on several occasions. The way how amateurish the film's poster looks here on imdb is pretty telling because the movie itself felt like that too. This does not only refer to the story that never felt even remotely fluent and smooth, but very uneven the way it was told. It was pretty difficult to find a real plot in this mess even at times and it certainly was not a convincing character study. It also refers to the technical aspects and with that I am mostly talking about the sound. The first half felt very strange. There was really loud music and really loud dialogues, but there were like zero sound effects. It was as if they were in a cave where literally no sound could get in or out to the audience's ears. So with that I mean when nobody was talking and the soundtrack was not playing, then there was utter silence, the way in which you wonder if you accidentally muted the film because usually there is always, at least very quietly, something to hear when watching a movie. Have not come across something like that in a while. Anyway, speaking of sound, I still want to say that the music elevated the film a bit at least. I mean the final "spectacular" music sequence was also not fulfilling at all, but maybe two of the songs were fine and are among those (not too many) reasons why I would not say this film was an utter failure. Also, if we cut the music component, looking at romantic movies from the 21st century here in Germany, many are considerably messier than this effort here. Still, almost all of it felt forgettable, most of all the story as a whole. Also the supporting actors added extremely little. And Torriani can't carry it all on his own. I give thiss film a thumbs-down. Even if you like these over-the-top old music comedies from my country, then there are a 100 better choices. Kinda surprised though to see this was filmed in Rome. The film definitely does not do justice to the location.
Another cast member I recognized at least from the name is Ruth Stephan, who sadly did not get particularly old. Shhe palys the love interest obviously, so the two "big names" (Torriani more than her) are at the center of the story of course. She looked charming I can't deny that. And probably she did not give a worse performance than Vico. But this alone cannot keep this film from becoming a disappointment on several occasions. The way how amateurish the film's poster looks here on imdb is pretty telling because the movie itself felt like that too. This does not only refer to the story that never felt even remotely fluent and smooth, but very uneven the way it was told. It was pretty difficult to find a real plot in this mess even at times and it certainly was not a convincing character study. It also refers to the technical aspects and with that I am mostly talking about the sound. The first half felt very strange. There was really loud music and really loud dialogues, but there were like zero sound effects. It was as if they were in a cave where literally no sound could get in or out to the audience's ears. So with that I mean when nobody was talking and the soundtrack was not playing, then there was utter silence, the way in which you wonder if you accidentally muted the film because usually there is always, at least very quietly, something to hear when watching a movie. Have not come across something like that in a while. Anyway, speaking of sound, I still want to say that the music elevated the film a bit at least. I mean the final "spectacular" music sequence was also not fulfilling at all, but maybe two of the songs were fine and are among those (not too many) reasons why I would not say this film was an utter failure. Also, if we cut the music component, looking at romantic movies from the 21st century here in Germany, many are considerably messier than this effort here. Still, almost all of it felt forgettable, most of all the story as a whole. Also the supporting actors added extremely little. And Torriani can't carry it all on his own. I give thiss film a thumbs-down. Even if you like these over-the-top old music comedies from my country, then there are a 100 better choices. Kinda surprised though to see this was filmed in Rome. The film definitely does not do justice to the location.
