Unfinished Symphony (film)

1934 British film
  • 23 August 1934 (1934-08-23) (UK)
  • 11 January 1935 (1935-01-11) (US)
Running time
84 minutesCountriesUnited Kingdom
Austria

Unfinished Symphony is a 1934 British-Austrian musical drama film directed by Willi Forst and Anthony Asquith and starring Mártha Eggerth, Helen Chandler, Hans Jaray, and Ronald Squire.[1] The film is based on the story of Franz Schubert who, in the 1820s left his symphony unfinished after losing the love of his life.[2] The film's alternate German-language version was called Gently My Songs Entreat.[3] This title refers to the first line of the Lied "Ständchen" (Serenade) from Schubert's collection Schwanengesang, "the most famous serenade in the world", performed by Mártha Eggerth in the film.[4]

Cast

Critical reception

The New York Times wrote, "with a happy unconcern for dismal historical truths, the agreeable little musical film at the Roxy pursues the history of Franz Schubert's glorious B Minor symphony along the silken paths of romance...Hans Jaray's performance reveals Schubert as a gentle and sad-faced youth, inordinately sensitive and at the same time filled with modest confidence in his genius. The well-known German actress and singer, Marta Eggerth, is the lovely aristocrat who laughed at the wrong time, and she helps the photoplay considerably with the warmth and skill of her interpretations of the Schubert songs. Helen Chandler pouts agreeably as the unhappy pawnshop maiden who loved the composer though his heart belonged to another. Despite its mediocre and sometimes wretched photography, Unfinished Symphony provides a politely winning background for the immortal lieder of the great composer."[5]

References

  1. ^ "Unfinished Symphony (1934)". IMDb. 30 May 1935.
  2. ^ "The Unfinished Symphony (1934)". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
  3. ^ "10 great films set in Vienna". British Film Institute.
  4. ^ "Gently My Songs Entreat (1933)". What Film.
  5. ^ "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 15 July 2021.

External links

  • Unfinished Symphony at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • v
  • t
  • e
Films directed by Anthony Asquith
Feature films
Short films
  • v
  • t
  • e
Willi Forst filmography
  • Gently My Songs Entreat (1933)
  • Maskerade (1934)
  • Unfinished Symphony (1934)
  • Mazurka (1935)
  • Court Theatre (1936)
  • Tomfoolery (1936)
  • Serenade (1937)
  • I Am Sebastian Ott (1939)
  • Bel Ami (1939)
  • Operetta (1940)
  • Vienna Blood (1942)
  • Women Are No Angels (1943)
  • Viennese Girls (1945)
  • Miracles Still Happen (1951)
  • The Sinner (1951)
  • The White Horse Inn (1952)
  • Cabaret (1954)
  • The Road to Paradise (1956)
  • Kaiserjäger (1956)
  • The Unexcused Hour (1957)
  • Vienna, City of My Dreams (1957)
  • v
  • t
  • e
Compositions
By genre
By year
  • 1810
  • '11
  • '12
  • '13
  • '14
  • '15
  • '16
  • '17
  • '18
  • '19
  • '20
  • '21
  • '22
  • '23
  • '24
  • '25
  • '26
  • '27
  • '28
  • undated
Publications
Media
People
  • Category
  • sound icon Audio


Stub icon

This article related to an Austrian film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

  • v
  • t
  • e
Stub icon

This article about a historic musical film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

  • v
  • t
  • e