Rhapsody (1954)

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

As far as the script for this ode to classical music goes it includes absolutely nothing you haven't seen before but it's presented with that inimitable MGM sheen. Made during that period when Elizabeth Taylor was at the very apex of her beauty she captivates as she drips in jewels and beautiful gowns in dazzling Technicolor. She's hard to pull your eyes from but she is teamed with two men, Vittorio Gassman and John Ericson, who are almost as beautiful as she. Excepting Louis Calhern who is just right as Liz's bon vivant father, the supporting cast blends into the woodwork.It's the music that matters and makes this picture however. Some of it is absurdly staged, i.e. the spontaneous performance of an entire violin symphony in a small restaurant, but what can you expect from a romantic drama in the 50's. Mostly though the music is played full out in the proper settings and is glorious and well worth muddling through the somewhat turgid proceedings that surround it.

At best this is a tepid melodrama redolent with overtones of comic operetta, sans the musical vocals. Taylor plays a selfish, wealthy young woman, Louise Durant--- a seductress with a manipulative game plan. She targets two gifted classical musicians for would be suitors, here portrayed as male window dressing by Vittorio Gassman and John Ericson. Louise proceeds to turn these two objects of her affection inside out, pitting one against the other as contenders for her beauteous self. She creates turmoil in their emotional lives, threatening their professional aspirations. And what Louise wants is total devotion from her man on a 24/7 schedule, an agenda of mutual possession; plenty of activity in the bedroom with time out for bathroom breaks. Elizabeth Taylor in this film radiates her youthful beauty at its best. Her screen power cannot be denied, however what is reaffirmed in Rhapsody is that Taylor was a "Movie Star" with all the power of a magnetic personality, which that definition entails. As an actress, her range was limited and talent but sufficient. What the audience sees when they see Elizabeth Taylor on film is always: Elizabeth Taylor.

When Elizabeth Taylor made "A Place in the Sun" in 1951, this was supposed to be her entry into more mature roles. In this film, for the first part of it, she sounds like a girl out in the rural areas of "National Velvet." She is churlish at best with a whining, annoying stature.Louis Calhern, as her father, certainly proves again that Father Knows Best but to a certain degree.It is with her attempted suicide in the film that she finds maturity and her performance improves.She goes back and forth in her desires between two notable musicians, the violinist (Vittoria Gassman) and pianist John Ericson, both of whom are excellent in their respective roles. Ironically, Gassman was married to Shelley Winters, the latter being a rival to Taylor in "Place in the Sun."The music here is divine and Tchaikovsky was never better.

This film should be compulsory viewing for all of those of either sex who want to be taken seriously by a talented artist whether a musician, stage, film or television actor, professional sports player and so on. Elizabeth Taylor is quite excellent as the rich, indulged young lady who still thinks that she can be the focal point of her chosen man's world in this case a self obsessed violinist who was still infinitely preferable to so many of her other male co-stars. And his fingering and bowing was quite superb - I only wish that I could have heard the sounds that he actually made and who actually made the beautiful music that forms the solid foundation of what was a thoroughly enjoyable film ? I agree that Louis Calhern as her father was superb - it is a pity that she listened to so little of what he said and in her case beauty was not even skin deep.