A funny thing I've discovered, by browsing through their respective filmographies, is that neither Greta Garbo nor Ingrid Bergman had a particularly amazing American screen debut, yet both went on to become great beauties of the silver screen, as well as highly regarded actresses. It was lucky that their screen debuts didn't show their full potential, and that they would go onto better films, otherwise they would have been run out of Hollywood.
Intermezzo has nothing going for it, really. I'm told the Swedish version (from 1936, also starring Bergman) is better, so I'll have to watch the two and compare. You can tell that it was Bergman's first English-language film, and she can't help this, but her performance is poor and she seems to be struggling with the language (to mention my comparison above, Greta Garbo made her American film debut in silent films, and was able to become fluent in English before Anna Christie).
Leslie Howard has no excuse. He was good in other films, but not here, here he seems to be struggling with the English as well. Both performances by both the leads are stiff and lacking emotion, which is odd, because Leslie Howard would make GWTW this same year. And Ingrid Bergman had made En Kvinnas Ansikte the year before. Neither of them had any excuse to be lacking in acting ability. And don't get me started on the supporting actors.
The story is rather weak, and the dialogue seems more stilted than if this were an early talkie. A male violinist (thanks to the movies, I've learned that you can never trust these guys) falls in love with his daughter's piano teacher, they run away and have an affair, despite the man being married and loving his daughter. The rest of the movie is them being selfish and only caring about their love affair, until the man's daughter is run over by a car and they're forced to be moralistic and break up- thank you, Production Code!
Only the people who wrote this film could make a 69 minute melodrama seem like ten seasons of a soap opera. The music isn't even nice- it's just bland classical stuff. Don't diss the stars based on this film- both made better films before and after this one.
Intermezzo has nothing going for it, really. I'm told the Swedish version (from 1936, also starring Bergman) is better, so I'll have to watch the two and compare. You can tell that it was Bergman's first English-language film, and she can't help this, but her performance is poor and she seems to be struggling with the language (to mention my comparison above, Greta Garbo made her American film debut in silent films, and was able to become fluent in English before Anna Christie).
Leslie Howard has no excuse. He was good in other films, but not here, here he seems to be struggling with the English as well. Both performances by both the leads are stiff and lacking emotion, which is odd, because Leslie Howard would make GWTW this same year. And Ingrid Bergman had made En Kvinnas Ansikte the year before. Neither of them had any excuse to be lacking in acting ability. And don't get me started on the supporting actors.
The story is rather weak, and the dialogue seems more stilted than if this were an early talkie. A male violinist (thanks to the movies, I've learned that you can never trust these guys) falls in love with his daughter's piano teacher, they run away and have an affair, despite the man being married and loving his daughter. The rest of the movie is them being selfish and only caring about their love affair, until the man's daughter is run over by a car and they're forced to be moralistic and break up- thank you, Production Code!
Only the people who wrote this film could make a 69 minute melodrama seem like ten seasons of a soap opera. The music isn't even nice- it's just bland classical stuff. Don't diss the stars based on this film- both made better films before and after this one.