Displaying items by tag: Michael Redgrave

OH… ROSALINDA!

UK, 1955, 101 minutes, Colour.

Anton Walbrook, Michael Redgrave, Ludmila Tcherina, Anthony Quayle, Dennis Price, Mel Ferrer, Anneliese Rothenberger.

Directed by Michael Powell.

Film-buffs will appreciate the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, especially admiring their very successful and striking films of the 1940s, will want to see this film, the last of their experiments, their coming to the end of their collaboration in the late 1950s.

The screenplay is an updating of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, The Bat, set in 1899, a light operetta, romance, deceptions, the touches of farce.

However, this film will be something of an acquired taste. The basic plot and characters from the original have been transferred to 1955, post-war Vienna, divided, rather like Berlin, into various zones, Russian, British, American, French. Audiences who appreciate the Strauss music will enjoy it. Audiences who find this kind of operetta something of a strain, will definitely feel the strain.

But, the adaptation to Vienna 1955, the international implications of the time, friendships and hostilities, the role of the Soviet Union, British propriety, the Americans being American, and the French touches of a more, is persuasive.

The film is very stylised, staged, emphasis on elaborate decor, lavish costumes, more than a touch of the bedroom farce. But, it is the cast which is quite striking. Michael Redgrave, surprisingly, represents the French, a man about town, married to Rosalinda, but always with an eye to other women, eventually being trapped. This is not the Michael Redgrave we are used to, doing his own singing, dancing, surprising high kicks, and into the air with the heel clicking zest. On the other hand, Dennis Price is typically British – enough said. Anthony Quayle is bombastic as the Russian representative. Mel Ferrer is the romantic American.

Entering the proceedings, introducing them, manipulating events, tantalising characters is the host, played by Anton Walbrook, veteran of several Powell-Pressburger films, The 49^th Parallel, Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes. He is obviously enjoying himself here.

Singer-dancer, Ludmila Tcherina is Rosalinda.

A specialised film for film buffs, Strauss lovers, those who enjoy this kind of operetta farce.