Humoresque (1946)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Lafe F

  
  A well-done classic film. Joan Crawford is great as an unstable and empty rich wife, threatening the success of a talented violinist. The acting performances are top notch all around. Notable was the mother of the violinist. The orchestra performances are a spectacle. High quality… More
  A well-done classic film. Joan Crawford is great as an unstable and empty rich wife, threatening the success of a talented violinist. The acting performances are top notch all around. Notable was the mother of the violinist. The orchestra performances are a spectacle. High quality production and direction too. I remember SCTV doing a skit based on this. The scenes on the beach on the end are well conceived. This movie caught my interest all the way through.

• Nicki M

  
  Goes on a little with the musical bits, (although some would probably see that as a positive thing). It also felt to me like this movie took a very long time to get going. About half way through it really does pick up and though I had gathered it probably wouldn't end well, the… More
  Goes on a little with the musical bits, (although some would probably see that as a positive thing). It also felt to me like this movie took a very long time to get going. About half way through it really does pick up and though I had gathered it probably wouldn't end well, the end was a shock. Joan Crawford, as usual, plays a strong woman, although with vulnerability you don't see straight away. I had sympathy for her, though I am not sure she was intended to be that way. A must see for fans of older films.

• Mason W

  
  Joan Crawford is in top form in another gem; Humoresque. This film is about a socialite (Crawford) whom falls in love with a musician (John Carfield). Many tragedies ensure in this very dramatic and a very good film.

• Veronique K

  
  there is one saying about joan crawford "you could love her or hate her, but you just can't ignore her!" maybe "humoresque" could be rendered as the self-clarified justification of crawford herself. once again adrain endorses crawford's resolute glamour… More
  there is one saying about joan crawford "you could love her or hate her, but you just can't ignore her!" maybe "humoresque" could be rendered as the self-clarified justification of crawford herself. once again adrain endorses crawford's resolute glamour with her vixen-alike shoulder paddings which affirms her woman power as the iconic signature of joan crawford. this is a love story of two backboned individuals with disparate social levels as blocks between them as well as their homogenous egoism against each other. a more than ripe john garfield plays paul boray who is a debutante fresh young musician with enormous talent but hindered by his gutter upbringing. crawford is helen wright, an alcoholic socialite who sponsors this unknown talent wholeheartedly. helen conceals her solitude behind her derisive facade which arouses paul to unveil her outward hardshell. helen's lovestriken by paul for his raw untamed masculinity which could be a smack right upon her untouchable pride. then paul's overbearingly uptight mother interferes with this affair as bad omen, then the issue of the artist's complete involvement in his art comes across them as a fatality to catalyze helen's doom: she cannot live as a second choice next to paul's music. the music score is by franz waxman with all the classic violin tunes as background. at times, a few scenes at the nightclub accompanied by the piano sound and a husky female singer peg la centra are particularly enjoyable, especially when she utters the famous "embrace me", crawford even partakes in it as the theme song of a neglected woman suffering from the want of love. oscar levant as the paul's pianist sideman is harmonious with all his wisecrackers as footnotes from scene to scene. and only garfield who makes his fame in "postman always rings twice" could compete the lofty joan crawford without fading from the spotlight. garfield has character eminent enough to upstage crawford without being effeminated by her brittle mannerism. as a matter of fact, he even demystifies her to expose her underneath fragility as love conquest. before the campy period of 50s, joan crawford still maintains a glittering grace in her without the later misogynistic uglification on her personal image. she remains acceptibly pleasant to a slight degree with some unique allure of her own. "humoresque" is a piece to manifest her feminine fraility as if it's a self-dubbed confession, also like a dirge to reminiscent her withered glow of romance.

• jay n

  
  great music wonderful cinematography and powerful movie star performances from the two leads