SYNOPSIS: American salesman attempts to introduce phonographs into Austria.
NOTES: Locations in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. The film was shot from June through September 1946. Nominated for prestigious Hollywood awards for Scoring of a Musical Picture (Victor Young) (lost to Easter Parade), and Color Costume Design (lost to Joan of Arc). Domestic rental gross exceeded $4 million, which made it Paramount's number two (after The Road to Rio) boxoffice attraction of 1947-48. (Or if you want to take the calendar year 1948, the movie still came in second, but this time after The Paleface). Second to Road to Rio as Paramount's top-grossing Australian release of 1948. Bing Crosby, Best Actor of 1948 - Photoplay Gold Medal Award.
COMMENT: Although some critics might regard this as a minor Billy Wilder exercise, it is in fact every bit as entertaining - perhaps more so - than such highly regarded Wilder comedies as A Foreign Affair and Some Like It Hot. Moreover it is sumptuously set and photographed, ingratiatingly acted, with Bing in fine voice, and Strauss music to boot. Crosby and Fontaine make particularly engaging principals and are well served by an outstanding support cast led by Richard Haydn, superbly raspy (and excellently made up) as Franz Joseph, and Roland Culver as an opportunistic if blue-blooded wastrel. Nice to see Sig Rumann and Lucile Watson (though we have never been able to spot Doris Dowling). Bert Prival is outstanding in an unexpectedly funny bit as the chauffeur who forsakes his staidness to slide down the banisters. Wilder's puckishly bizarre sense of humor is always in evidence, leading up to a frighteningly suspenseful climax in which the His Master's Voice pups are rescued from the evil Culver and Rumann. In all, doubtless due to Brackett's influence and contribution, Wilder has balanced the movie particularly well between farce and fantasy, romance and risibility, comic cut-ups and more realistic characterization, songs and suspense. The traditions of musical comedy are integrated with those of the comedy of manners. Both are not only exploited to the full, but gently lampooned.
NOTES: Locations in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. The film was shot from June through September 1946. Nominated for prestigious Hollywood awards for Scoring of a Musical Picture (Victor Young) (lost to Easter Parade), and Color Costume Design (lost to Joan of Arc). Domestic rental gross exceeded $4 million, which made it Paramount's number two (after The Road to Rio) boxoffice attraction of 1947-48. (Or if you want to take the calendar year 1948, the movie still came in second, but this time after The Paleface). Second to Road to Rio as Paramount's top-grossing Australian release of 1948. Bing Crosby, Best Actor of 1948 - Photoplay Gold Medal Award.
COMMENT: Although some critics might regard this as a minor Billy Wilder exercise, it is in fact every bit as entertaining - perhaps more so - than such highly regarded Wilder comedies as A Foreign Affair and Some Like It Hot. Moreover it is sumptuously set and photographed, ingratiatingly acted, with Bing in fine voice, and Strauss music to boot. Crosby and Fontaine make particularly engaging principals and are well served by an outstanding support cast led by Richard Haydn, superbly raspy (and excellently made up) as Franz Joseph, and Roland Culver as an opportunistic if blue-blooded wastrel. Nice to see Sig Rumann and Lucile Watson (though we have never been able to spot Doris Dowling). Bert Prival is outstanding in an unexpectedly funny bit as the chauffeur who forsakes his staidness to slide down the banisters. Wilder's puckishly bizarre sense of humor is always in evidence, leading up to a frighteningly suspenseful climax in which the His Master's Voice pups are rescued from the evil Culver and Rumann. In all, doubtless due to Brackett's influence and contribution, Wilder has balanced the movie particularly well between farce and fantasy, romance and risibility, comic cut-ups and more realistic characterization, songs and suspense. The traditions of musical comedy are integrated with those of the comedy of manners. Both are not only exploited to the full, but gently lampooned.