Once again with feeling (1959)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Once again with feeling |
| Original title | Once More, With Feeling! |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Stanley Donen |
| script | Harry Kurnitz |
| production | Stanley Donen |
| music | classical pieces by Franz Liszt Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner |
| camera | Georges Périnal |
| cut | Jack Harris |
| occupation | |
| |
A British comedy film by Stanley Donen from 1959 with Yul Brynner in the role of a "self-adoring, hopelessly eccentric star conductor" and Kay Kendall as his wife, who is increasingly annoyed by his capers, is once again with emotion . For the English artist this was her last film role, she died of leukemia five months before the premiere . Harry Kurnitz wrote the script based on his own play of the same name, which premiered on Broadway on October 21, 1958.
action
Star conductor Victor Fabian is an egomaniacal bundle of temperament who easily gets out of the skin if everything doesn't go according to him and you don't read his wishes from his lips. Fabian is the head of the London Festival Orchestra and has a reputation there that oscillates between ingenuity and self-importance. His wife Dolly is also an artist and plays the harp in the orchestra. She has her hands full not to be suckled into in this marriage and regularly has many verbal exchanges at home with her exaggerated, egocentric husband. In addition, your task is to pass on the angry demands made by Victor in a diplomatic package to the sometimes annoyed orchestra and their supporters. Dolly's long-suffering is proverbial, but one day, when she sees Victor jabbering with a young musician, she has had enough of her husband's whims and capers and announces that she is leaving him. In a fit of anger, which is only intended to underline that he will not tolerate any contradiction and that one should continue to dance to his tune, the maestro destroys Dolly's beloved harp.
Fabian soon realizes how important the presence of his wife is to him, who has had to endure and endure so much. He becomes unable to concentrate and his skills as a conductor decrease noticeably. The quality of the orchestra, which Dolly needed so much as a mediator, is also significantly weaker. Fabian's agent and manager Max Archer, who has suffered from Fabian's uncontrolled outbursts many times, tries to get his client a new contract. Only Mr. Wilbur junior is still ready to hire the diva Fabian. But this new commitment has a catch: A contract will only be concluded if Victor Fabian agrees to include Wilbur's mother's favorite piece, John Philip Sousa's March Stars and Stripes Forever , in his music repertoire . Victor is boiling with anger. His mood worsens when Dolly, whose return he is firmly convinced, tells him that she wants to divorce him. Dolly already has a new husband in prospect: it is the doctor Dr. Richard Hilliard. Victor suggests that in the event of a divorce, those to be divorced must have been married beforehand. Now it is public: Victor and Dolly lived as husband and wife without ever exchanging rings.
Victor is not ready to let his Dolly go and to agree to a divorce that is actually not needed if “his wife” is not willing to be at his side for another three weeks. “Again with feeling” is the motto now. But Victor wouldn't be Victor if he didn't try to cheat again. During these three weeks, Fabian tries to wear down Dolly, and finally the husband-to-be, Dr. Hilliard, his future wife also in a ruffled, sexy nightgown, so that he has to assume that Dolly has started something with Victor Fabian again. It comes to a scandal and Dolly, annoyed by prima donna-like men at her side, announces that she has had enough of men for the time being and wants to live alone from now on. Victor has now lost both his wife and the orchestra. He finally gives in to the inevitable and accepts the new terms of the contract. Dolly is sitting in the audience when, expressing the greatest reluctance, he lets his orchestra crash out Stars and Stripes Forever .
Production notes
Once again with feeling was written in the spring / summer of 1959 and premiered on February 11, 1960 in New York City. The German premiere took place on March 18, 1960. On September 21, 1967 the film was broadcast for the first time on German television (on ARD ).
Alexandre Trauner was responsible for the film construction, Muir Mathieson took over the musical arrangement of the classical pieces of music and also worked as conductor for this film. Hubert de Givenchy designed Kay Kendall's dresses, Maurice Binder was responsible for the title sequence.
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Victor Fabian | Yul Brynner | Klaus Miedel |
| Dolly Fabian | Kay Kendall | Agi Prandhoff |
| Maxwell Archer | Gregory Ratoff | Klaus W. Krause |
| Dr. Richard Hilliard | Geoffrey Toone | Heinz Engelmann |
| Mr. Wilbur | Mervyn Johns | Hugo Schrader |
| Angela Hopper | Shirley Ann Field | Dorle Hinze |
| Luigi Bardini | Martin Benson | Horst Niendorf |
| Chester | Harry Lockart | Manfred Grote |
Reviews
The film was received by the critics partly in a friendly, partly disinterested or negative way. Here are a few examples:
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote on February 11, 1960: “In addition to Harry Kurnitz writing the lead roles, so the characters are in a near permanent state of resentment and sharpness, Mr. Brynner's husband becomes one made such pompous and humorless egoists that it is downright irritating. (…) As for poor Miss Kendall… she works hard to come across as uncomfortable, with virtually no success. She screeches and puffs up her feathers, throws objects and smashes television sets, but only appears as if she is delusional. Mr. Kurnitz denied her any joke. Given the lack of what is obviously essential, she is only fragile and sad. (...) The only participant who spreads a little sunshine is Gregory Ratoff as a badly battered manager. "
The film's large personal dictionary , on the other hand, found that Brynner succeeded in creating “a gorgeous portrait of an exaggerated, egomaniacal star conductor” and saw the production as “a social comedy pervaded by amusing verbal exchanges”. In Stanley Donen's biography it says in the same work: "With the turbulent tabloid piece 'Once more with feeling' Donen Yul Brynner showed that he could not only perform perfectly in macho roles, but also had a lot of wit and humor."
"Despite the sparkling Kay Kendall ... as the dissatisfied wife of music conductor Brynner, this marriage-sex comedy fizzles out."
"Thin comedy of a West End play, something between a roaring match and a fashion show."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of films , Volume 4, p. 355. Berlin 2001
- ↑ Once again with feeling in the German dubbing files
- ↑ full review in The New York Times
- ↑ Kay Less: The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 1, p. 593. Berlin 2001
- ^ The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 2, p. 423
Web links
- That Old Feeling in the Internet Movie Database (English)