Oh... Rosalinda!!

1955

Action / Musical

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 60% · 2 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 60%
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 526 526

musical operetta post war vienna

Plot summary

Pseudonym Dr. Falke follows his wife through disguises and deceptions in postwar Vienna.

Director

Michael Powell Photo
Michael Powell

Top cast

Dennis Price Photo
Dennis Price as Maj. Frank
Roy Kinnear Photo
Roy Kinnear
Denis Carey Photo
Denis Carey as Dancer
Richard Marner Photo
Richard Marner as Col. Lebotov
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
809.19 MB
1280*544
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 41 min
Seeds ...
1.51 GB
1920*816
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 41 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by jshoaf

Champagne, Scotch, Vodka, or Coke?

I just saw this film on a not-too-great VHS copy and wish it could be released on DVD. It would be a great companion to Tales of Hoffmann by the same team, though it is quite different in flavor.As in Hoffmann, the film is full of dancing--but much of it has an improvised flavor, a polka down the hall, a can-can by Michael Redgrave in full military evening dress and kepi, as well as lots of waltzing-- and some of the actors are lip-synching the arias as sung by folks with bigger voices. But there is also a lot of spoken dialogue, so the actors get to establish their characters in their own voices. The trouble is that the characters are still the silly, exaggerated characters of an operetta, with chiming watches, comic hangovers, and huge plot-enhancing blind spots.The most interesting character is of course Anton Walbrook's Dr. Falke, the Bat. As in The Red Shoes and La Ronde, Walbrook plays the man who keeps the whole thing going, the leader of the dance, but here he is euphoric, almost ecstatic. Falke is presented as a black-marketer who arranges parties for the higher-ups of the Four Powers occupying Vienna, and keeps them on good terms with each other; he exploits them, lives off them--and he would like to see them all go home. He is witty and views everything with cheerful irony, but he never stops enjoying himself for a moment, never goes down, only up, up, up. Ludmilla Tcherina is a delightful French farce heroine, flirting only when absolutely necessary. Michael Redgrave gets to do some great swooping physical comedy (apparently he also did his own singing, but who can tell?). Mel Ferrer comes off well in his light role as the old boyfriend, as does Dennis Price in a smaller role whose main duty is to be recognizable for plot purposes. Anneliese Rothenberger is a reminder of more conventional stagings, where the singers act instead of having actors "sing."I felt that the 1955 setting was a bit thin--were the 50's really THAT much about denying what had happened and "moving on"? Maybe they were--Pressburger and Powell were good at telling where the wind was blowing.
Reviewed by clanciai 10 / 10

Russian party of peace in Vienna

This ingenious adaptation of the great Strauss operetta for the screen with a positive political message, that carried results, has always been grossly undervalued. For some reason it was never shown in America until 30 years after it was made. It shows all the Powell-Pressburger magic tricks in a fantasmagoria of great fun with intriguing details in every new scene. The story is rather confusing, but that's the purpose of it, and doctor Franke (Viennese, played by Anton Walbrook) is the magician controlling everything. He wakes up after a party having been placed on top of a statue as an insult to the Russians by the French (Michael Redgrave) and decides to take a comprehensive revenge. He persuades the Russian in charge (Anthony Quayle) to give a party for all involved, and the most involved of all is Rosalinda, Michael Regrave's (French) wife (Ludmila Tcherina, the primadonna of the film, like she was in their previous film "Tales of Hoffmann"), and here she repeats her very seductive role, insistently courted by the American Mel Ferrer. The funniest scene is perhaps the British representative (Dennis Price) seeing double after the party, which is clearly visualized to the audience, while the best acting is by Anthony Quayle as the pompous and very convincing Russian general, the most drunk of all. It's a party film all the way and one of the best ever made, and it was in some aspects prophetic, as the French, the British, the Americans and the Russians actually gave up their occupation of Vienna in this year, tiring of being guests staying too long and of being unnecessary occupants of such a charming and lovely city.
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