Pure classic melodrama at it's best! Joan Crawford and John Garfield star in their most shinning roles as actors.The plot and storyline is very difficult to make entertaining in this movie but these two professionals bring it to life. And Oscar Levant is the icing on the cake. By all means if you get a chance to see this movie with these two Hollywood legendary actors and a script that is in any description more than brilliant - please watch it.A rare treat for classic Hollywood movie fans.

Up Front, Your Enjoyment of this Melodramatic Soap, with Punctuations of Dry Witty Patter, will most Assuredly Depend on Your Appreciation for, and Enjoyment of, Classical Music. Especially those that Feature the Violin. Because there is an Extraordinary Amount of said Music in this Starring Duo of Joan Crawford and John Garfield.Impeccably Shot and Likewise Scored, this has Garfield, some say Miscast although He does pull it off, as a Virtuoso Violinist Vacating all things in Life to the Mastery of His Instrument, as Crawford being His Benefactor wishes He would pay more Attention to another of His Endowed Instruments. They Both Deliver Solid and quite Stunning Performances.That is the Drama and it is Played Out Throughout and Strung Along until its Lengthy Running Time is Ended with the Heaviest of Soap Opera Conclusions. But Everything Manages to come Together in this Very Well Mounted, and Acted Picture. On a side note, Joan Crawford Looks Years Younger and quite Stunning, Surprisingly, when She dons Her Spectacles, although Her Ego probably prevented those Shots from Appearing in the Promotional Stills for the Movie, although there may be some out there that are not Screen Captures.

Humoresque (1946) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Paul Boray (John Garfield) dreams of being able to play his violin for a living but he just doesn't have the right connections to make it. This changes when he meets a rich married woman (Joan Crawford) who takes a liking to his talent but soon the two fall in love as Paul's career takes off. Many people have compared this to GOLDEN BOY only with music and I think that's a fair thing to say. There's no question that this here is going to be very entertaining to film buffs due to a number of reasons but of course when you've got heavyweights like Garfield and Crawford you know you're in for a treat. Crawford was coming off her Oscar-winning role in MILDRED PIERCE and she followed that role up with another terrific character. Even though she's given top-billing she's mainly just a supporting player here but she delivers a remarkable performance. For someone who always played tough characters, the actress does a fantastic job at playing someone very fragile and weak. This is certainly the type of role that fans hadn't seen from Crawford and she is wonderful in it. Garfield is also someone fit with the tough guy roles and seeing him play a violin isn't what you expect from him but he's very much believable in the role. I thought he did a fantastic job showing the character's love for music and why a woman would be second. Oscar Levant is very strong as the piano player, Ruth Nelson is great in the role of the mother and the always dependable J. Carrol Naish. A young Robert Blake plays the kid Garfield. The music is certainly another highlight as it's constantly playing throughout the film and helps explain the 125-minute running time. Isaac Stern dubbed Garfield in the music and he certainly did a fantastic job. There's been much written about the ending, which I won't spoil here but it's certainly a wonderful sequence that is perfectly put together. The way it mixes the music with the actions of Crawford was very impressive.

This film will get a lot of comparison's to the aforementioned film because of the time it was released. Crawford was coming off a triumph with Pierce and they thought...why not throw another Melodrama with Crawford in it out there and see how well it does.I think the main issue this film isn't on the scale of Mildred Pierce is the content. It's a bit dry. I mean if they could have put a different type of music into this film then it would have really had some heart. As it stands, putting a classical violinist who lives and breathes violin is just plain boring to me. Would have been nice to see maybe a jazz type of feel to it or even big band but it was almost like "Chamber Music" in the film. The story itself is fine it's just....I dunno....there's something missing.The story goes, poor kid who grows up playing the Violin catches the eye of a "Benefactor" at a party and she gets his name out there in classical concert circles. All the while she falls in love with him...as he with her. The problem is nothing in his life is first except the Violin. In her life it's booze and an uncertainty in her own mind about herself. She's very insecure. With this we get a lot of posturing about who runs the relationship and such. Who's in charge...or...who comes first.I personally really liked this film. Garfield and Crawford really do a great job in this one but the one who steals the show is Oscar Levant. Without his wisecracks and injections of reality to the characters in this film, it would just be another Melodrama with Joan Crawford in it. He's an absolute scene stealer. His piano playing is really quite stunning (he was actually a classical trained pianist before he was an actor).A really good film with great performances all around but just a little dry. It doesn't have the kick that Mildred Pierce did but it really is worth seeing. Think along the lines of Daisy Kenyon (another fine film). Just to see how beautiful Joan Crawford was at 40 is worth the price of admission.