Themes: Love Triangles, Infidelity, Musician's Life
Main Cast: Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Edna Best, John Halliday, Cecil Kellaway
Release Year: 1939
Country: US/IT
Run Time: 70 minutes
Plot
Gregory Ratoff directed David O. Selznick's richly produced American remake of the Swedish film directed by Gustav Molander and starring Ingrid Bergman, who re-creates her role here. The story -- based on the original screenplay by Molander and Gosta Stevens -- concerns a love affair played out between famed concert violinist Holger Brandt (Leslie Howard) and a young pianist, Anita Hoffman (Ingrid Bergman). Holger has just finished a grand tour and has returned to his home country of Sweden, into the arms of his wife Margit (Edna Best) and two children, Ann Marie (Ann Todd) and Eric (Douglas Scott). But soon Holger falls deeply in love with his children's piano teacher Anita. Holger asks Margit for a divorce, but she demurs, telling Holger he should take time to think the whole thing through. Holger and Anita travel abroad, and Anita becomes acclaimed as a pianist -- but Holger keeps looking at other people's children and begins to wonder whether he should go back to his family. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
The film that introduced Ingrid Bergman to an adoring American public, Intermezzo is pure, old-fashioned melodrama. Were it to be attempted today, the result would be pure schmaltz, but Intermezzo succeeds because its creators seem to believe in its story, and therefore make the audience care about it too. They also know that this kind of story works best if the viewer doesn't have time to think too carefully as he or she is watching it, and so they keep it to an incredibly brief 70 minutes. Director Gregory Ratoff keeps the pacing swift and turns in some of his best work here. He is helped immeasurably, of course, by Bergman. Radiant, exuberant, and totally mesmerizing, Bergman combines stunning beauty and dramatic intelligence with an intuitive sense of "movie star" acting, to give a performance that is a pleasure to watch. She practically glows in every scene, her joy in simply appearing onscreen coming through in every frame. Leslie Howard has a hard time keeping up with her, and on the whole, his performance is rather perfunctory; however, there is a chemistry between the two stars and that makes up for his otherwise bland portrayal. Bergman's career stalled somewhat after Intermezzo, with several films that didn't capitalize on her unique talents, but it was jump-started again in 1942 with Casablanca. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Enid Bennett - Greta Stenborg; Ann E. Todd - Ann Marie Brandt; Douglas Scott - Eric Brandt; Eleanor Wesselhoeft - Emma; Marie Flynn - Marianne; Erik Berglund - Charles Moller; Hugo Björne - Thomas Stenborg; Millan Bolander; Hasse Ekman - Ake; George Fant; Britt Hagman - Ann-Marie; Folke Helleberg; Anders Henrikson; Emma Meissner - Greta; Margit Orth; Carl Strom; Inga Tidblad - Margit Brandt; Gösta Ekman - Holger Brandt
Credit
Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, Travis Banton - Costume Designer, Irene - Costume Designer, Gregory Ratoff - Director, Francis D. Lyon - Editor, Hal Kern - Editor, Louis Forbes - Composer (Music Score), Max Steiner - Composer (Music Score), Heinz Provost - Composer (Music Score), Louis Forbes - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gregg Toland - Cinematographer, David O. Selznick - Producer, Jack Cosgrove - Special Effects, Gustaf Molander - Screen Story, Gösta Stevens - Screen Story, George O'Neil - Screenwriter
The musical duets, with Howard and Bergman, were dubbed for the soundtrack with professional musicians; however, the actors' hands show the actual music being played:[1] Ingrid Bergman plays the full piano parts (for Edvard Grieg's "Concerto in A minor" and Christian Sinding's "Rustle of Spring"), so her hand positions are correct for the music soundtrack; Leslie Howard could not play the violin, but Ingrid Bergman explained the trick used in the Swedish film: 2 violinists held the bow & violin before Howard in closeups (one held the bow and the other held the violin), while Howard kept his arms at his sides.[1]
1939 Situation
At the crucial scene where the film's two main protagonists stand looking into the river and realize that they have fallen in love with each other, Leslie Howard makes a casual remark on "the time when Vienna was a happy city" - obviously referring to that city being under Nazi rule since the Anschluss in the previous year.
The film (unlike some other Howard films) makes no other overt references to the Nazis or to the impended war. Nevertheless, in depicting the protagonists travelling - superficially happily and carefree, but with an ever present background of foreboding and melancholy - the filmakers could have hardly been unaware of the prevailing international situation and the already manifest possibility that this was the last year of peace in Europe (as indeed it proved).
^ abIngrid: Ingrid Bergman, a Personal Biography (book), Charlotte Chandler, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007, 334 pages: page 69 quotes Bergman about filming hands and playing piano with her family.
