To celebrate classic actor John Garfield’s centennial birthday. Patti at "They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To", is hosting The John Garfield Centennial Blogathon. Please click on poster located on the side bar to read all contributions.
This is my contribution to the John Garfield, event. He was a popular leading man of his era, who made some great films. Which brings us to one of my favorite Garfield films the very glamorous:
Humoresque(1947). One of the best tortured love stories ever filmed. It is about.. one rich, bored with life woman and one poor, talented young man violinist, who fall in love and make trouble for everybody including themselves. Cast: Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Oscar Levant, J. Carroll Nash, Joan Chandler, Tom D'Andrea, Peggy Knudsen, Ruth Nelson, Craig Stevens, Paul Cavanaugh, Richard Gaines, John Abbott, Bobby Blake, Tommy Cook, Don McGuire, Fritz Leiber, Peg La Centra, Nestor Paiva, Richard Walsh.
John Garfield's violin "performances" are actually played by two professional violinists standing on either side of him, one to bow and one to finger. The actual music was performed by Isaac Stern. According to Isaac Stern's autobiography, "My First 79 Years", when the movie shows closeups of the hands alone playing the violin (without Garfield in the frame), those are Stern's hands you see.
Awards: 1947 Oscar nomination for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Franz Waxman.
Violinist Paul Boray, first becomes interested in the violin as a child when he receives the violin as a birthday present. Phil, Paul's older brother, resents the fact that Paul spends all his time practicing, instead of working in the family grocery store.
Paul, finds a job with a radio orchestra, but.. things don't work out because he thinks he is ready to make his classical concert debut. His friend Sid, suggests that he attend a party at the home of socialites Helen and Victor Wright, where he might meet the right people, who introduces him to Bauer.
At the party Helen, who is jaded and bored with her life, amuses herself with young men. Becomes interested in the ambitious classical violinist performing at her party, she jokes that he will probably end up in prison.
Soon after, Paul becomes a successful performer and he and Helen fall in love. When Helen talks things over with his mother Esther, she reminds Helen about her three previous failed marriages and begs her to leave Paul alone.
One night, while Paul is performing on the radio, a drunken Helen realizes that she maybe holding him back from the thing he loves the most, his career. You see the despair written on Crawford's face and her loneliness of being in an unhappy marriage and not knowing what to do with her forbidden love.
The final chilling good-by scene is when Helen, walks along the beach, the ocean is dark, lonely and beautiful all at the same time....