''Song Without End'', subtitled ''The Story of Franz Liszt'', is a 1960
biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
. It was directed by
Charles Vidor
Charles Vidor (born Károly Vidor; July 27, 1900June 4, 1959) was a Hungarian film director. Among his film successes are ''The Bridge'' (1929), ''The Tuttles of Tahiti'' (1942), ''The Desperadoes'' (1943), ''Cover Girl'' (1944), '' Together A ...
, who died during the shooting of the film and was replaced by
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor (; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's Head ...
. It was produced by
William Goetz
William B. Goetz (March 24, 1903 – August 15, 1969) was an American film producer and studio executive. Goetz was one of the founders of Twentieth Century Pictures, and later served as vice president of 20th Century Fox after the merger with ...
from a
screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...
by
Oscar Millard
Oscar Millard (March 1, 1908 – December 7, 1990) was an English writer who published two books set in Belgium before finding success in Hollywood as a screenwriter.
Author
In 1936 Millard published a biography of Adolphe Max, who had been ...
, revised (uncredited) by
Walter Bernstein
Walter Bernstein (August 20, 1919 – January 23, 2021) was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s because of his views on communism. Some of his notable works included ''The ...
and based on screenwriter
Oscar Saul
Oscar Saul (December 26, 1912, New York City – May 23, 1994, Los Angeles) was an American screenwriter. Saul wrote or collaborated on the screenplays for numerous movies from the 1940s through to the early 1980s. His best-known work was on the sc ...
Morris Stoloff
Morris W. Stoloff (August 1, 1898 – April 16, 1980) was a musical composer. Stoloff worked with Sammy Davis Jr., Dinah Shore, Al Jolson and Frank Sinatra.
Life and career
Stoloff worked as music director at Columbia Pictures from 1936 to 1962. ...
and
Harry Sukman
Harry Sukman (December 2, 1912 – December 2, 1984) was an American film and television composer.
Life and career
Sukman was born in Chicago in 1912. He started his musical career in the 1920s, when he was a teenager. He composed music scores f ...
with music by
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
, and the
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
by
James Wong Howe
Wong Tung Jim, A.S.C. (; August 28, 1899 – July 12, 1976), known professionally as James Wong Howe (Houghto), was a Chinese-born American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films. During the 1930s and 1940s, he was one of the most soug ...
and
Charles Lang
Charles Bryant Lang Jr., A.S.C. (March 27, 1902, Bluff, Utah – April 3, 1998, Santa Monica, California The film also features music of those contemporaries of Liszt whom he unselfishly championed by featuring them in his numerous performances (e.g.,
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, Hector Berlioz, among others).Abram Chasins, "Song Without End", Colpix Records, 1960,(LP), Liner notes.
The film stars
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as ''Doctor in the House'' (1954) for the Rank Organ ...
as Liszt, Capucine (in her acting debut) as Princess
Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein
Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (8 February 18199 March 1887) was a Polish noblewoman (''szlachcianka'') who is best known for her 40-year relationship with musician Franz Liszt. She was also an amateur journalist and essayist. It is co ...
, and
Geneviève Page
Geneviève Page (born Geneviève Bonjean, 13 December 1927) is a French actress with a film career spanning fifty years and also numerous English-speaking film productions. She is the daughter of French art collector Jacques Paul Bonjean (1899– ...
as
Marie d'Agoult
Marie Cathérine Sophie, Comtesse d'Agoult (née de Flavigny; 31 December 18055 March 1876), was a Franco-German romantic author and historian, known also by her pen name, Daniel Stern.
Life
Marie was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with th ...
, with
Patricia Morison
Eileen Patricia Augusta Fraser Morison (March 19, 1915 – May 20, 2018) was an American stage, television and film actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood and mezzo-soprano singer. She made her feature film debut in 1939 after several years on ...
as
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...
,
Lyndon Brook
Lyndon Brook (10 April 1926 – 9 January 2004) was a British actor, on film and television.
Family and early life
Lyndon Brook was born on 10 April 1926 in Los Angeles, California, to British parents. He came from an established acting fami ...
as
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, Albert Rueprecht as Prince
Felix Lichnowsky
Felix (von) Lichnowsky, ''fully'' Felix Maria Vincenz Andreas ''Fürst'' von Lichnowsky, ''Graf'' von Werdenberg ( es, link=no, Félix Lichnowsky; 5 April 1814 – 19 September 1848) was a son of the historian Eduard Lichnowsky who had wr ...
, Erland Erlandsen as
Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.
Family
He was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 January 1812. According to his own account, h ...
Martita Hunt
Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 190013 June 1969) was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havi ...
,
Lou Jacobi
Lou Jacobi (born Louis Harold Jacobovitch; December 28, 1913October 23, 2009) was a Canadian character actor.
Life and early career
Jacobi was born Louis Harold Jacobovitch in Toronto, Canada, to Joseph and Fay Jacobovitch.
Jacobi began acting ...
Columbia Pictures had plans to film ''The Franz Liszt Story'' back in 1952. Studio head Harry Cohn hired his friend, acclaimed screenwriter
Oscar Saul
Oscar Saul (December 26, 1912, New York City – May 23, 1994, Los Angeles) was an American screenwriter. Saul wrote or collaborated on the screenplays for numerous movies from the 1940s through to the early 1980s. His best-known work was on the sc ...
(''
A Streetcar Named Desire
''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pers ...
''), to produce his own original screenplay with
William Dieterle
William Dieterle (July 15, 1893 – December 9, 1972) was a German-born actor and film director who emigrated to the United States in 1930 to leave a worsening political situation. He worked in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood primarily a ...
set to direct. When the studio delayed going forward with the project due to production and casting issues for three years, Oscar Saul backed out, and Columbia announced in 1955 that
Gottfried Reinhardt
Gottfried Reinhardt (20 March 1913 – 19 July 1994) was an Austrian-born American film director and producer.
Biography
Reinhardt was born in Berlin, the son of the Austrian theater director Max Reinhardt (until 1904: Max Goldmann), manage ...
had been commissioned to write a new screenplay. In 1958, veteran producer William Goetz took over the project with Oscar Millard as his screenwriter. Charles Vidor, who previously directed '' A Song to Remember'' (1945), a biopic of
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...
, was assigned to direct using elements of all three screenwriters' scripts.
As nearly 40 musical selections were heard in the film,
Morris Stoloff
Morris W. Stoloff (August 1, 1898 – April 16, 1980) was a musical composer. Stoloff worked with Sammy Davis Jr., Dinah Shore, Al Jolson and Frank Sinatra.
Life and career
Stoloff worked as music director at Columbia Pictures from 1936 to 1962. ...
, head of Columbia's music department, began immediate work on the soundtrack. After selecting the pieces to be played, he engaged piano virtuoso Jorge Bolet, the
Roger Wagner Chorale
The Roger Wagner Chorale is an American choir founded by choral musician and educator Roger Wagner in 1946.
History
In 1937, Roger Wagner joined the MGM chorus in Hollywood and was subsequently appointed Music Director of St. Joseph's Chur ...
Harry Sukman
Harry Sukman (December 2, 1912 – December 2, 1984) was an American film and television composer.
Life and career
Sukman was born in Chicago in 1912. He started his musical career in the 1920s, when he was a teenager. He composed music scores f ...
was in charge of the music editing and adaptations that were required for the musical score. Musicologist
Abram Chasins
Abram Chasins (August 17, 1903 – June 21, 1987) was an American composer, pianist, piano teacher, lecturer, musicologist, music broadcaster, radio executive and author.
Born in Manhattan, New York, he attended the Ethical Culture schoo ...
was a musical consultant on the film. The recording of the music (by Earl Mounce) was completed before the start of production so that Bogarde could learn the finger movements necessary to make him appear to be playing the piano realistically in the film. Musical adviser
Victor Aller
Victor Aller (March 26, 1905, New York City – May 1977, in the area of Los Angeles, California) was an American pianist.
He had a successful career behind the scenes in the film industry, and he taught piano in Hollywood, where his students ...
spent three weeks rehearsing Bogarde in proper piano technique.
As for the image of the composer, the filmmakers made
Dirk Bogarde
Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as ''Doctor in the House'' (1954) for the Rank Organ ...
look more like
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
, sticking not to historical accuracy, but to popular trends of the late 1950s.
Soundtracks
Two notable soundtracks were recorded in 1960, one by each of the composers of the Oscar-winning score.
Colpix Records
Colpix Records was the first recording company for Columbia Pictures–Screen Gems. Colpix got its name from combining Columbia (Col) and Pictures (Pix). CBS, which owned Columbia Records, then sued Columbia Pictures for trademark infringement ov ...
, a division of Columbia Pictures released ''Song Without End: Original Soundtrack Recording'' featuring the pianist Jorge Bolet playing seven of Franz Liszt's compositions. The
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the ...
was conducted by
Morris Stoloff
Morris W. Stoloff (August 1, 1898 – April 16, 1980) was a musical composer. Stoloff worked with Sammy Davis Jr., Dinah Shore, Al Jolson and Frank Sinatra.
Life and career
Stoloff worked as music director at Columbia Pictures from 1936 to 1962. ...
. Orchestral selections included four selections from the film's repertoire, and two selections reminded listeners of Liszt's organ virtuosity (uncredited performer..accompanied by "The Song Without End" chorus). CP-506 (LP). ''The Franz Liszt Story'' featured the piano and orchestra of
Harry Sukman
Harry Sukman (December 2, 1912 – December 2, 1984) was an American film and television composer.
Life and career
Sukman was born in Chicago in 1912. He started his musical career in the 1920s, when he was a teenager. He composed music scores f ...
. Liberty Records, LST-7151 (LP). Harry Sukman recorded ten of the Liszt compositions featured in the film.
Eight of those selections were adaptations by Harry Sukman composed especially for the album.
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
praised the music: “A little bit of everything reflective not only of the talent of Liszt but also of most of the great composers of his highly romantic age—Wagner, Paganini,
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
,
Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
, Chopin—artists whose work he respected, assisted, embellished and often played, is packed into this picture. And it is brilliantly and beautifully performed...” However, he observed that “the host of characters were brushed in so superficially that they carry little conviction or emotional strength, and the performances of the actors are, by necessity, more elaborate than they are deep... However, as we say, the music thunders; the settings and costumes are superb—such Viennese concert halls and palaces and lush romantic trappings have never been surpassed in a color film—and, indeed, the sheer posing of the actors by the late Charles Vidor and George Cukor is so suave that anyone moved by musical richness and pictorial splendor should go quite nutty over this film.”
Academy Awards
The film won the Best Music score Academy Award for Morris Stoloff and Harry Sukman and the
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...