Tells the story of Johann Strauss, II, from the times of him as a struggling composer to in his later years as the accomplished composer of Vienna, while meanwhile involved in the love triangle with his long suffering wife, Poli, and diva opera star, Carla Donner. As mentioned in the summary, this has little to do with the true life story of Strauss, but captures the essence of his music, which is timeless. Rainer is believable as Strauss' wife, Gravet has fun in his role of Strauss and gives a pleasing performance, Huber & Bois provide decent comic relief, but Korjus radiates and steals every scene she is in as Donner. Duvivier has fun with the musical aspects of the film, but his attempts at drama come off as appearing very weak. Ruttenberg's cinematography is exquisite and Tiomkin remarkably pulled off the task of arranging Strauss' waltzes & polkas into the main score. Rating- 7.
Review of The Great Waltz
