A Masterpiece!

A Disappointing Continuation

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

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.

HUMORESQUE is a really intense romantic drama where a working class musician and a rich and unstable woman fall madly in love with each other. They struggle with each other and the expectations from their family.JOAN CRAWFORD is extraordinarily beautiful and she turns in a remarkable performance here as the hard drinking unhappily married rich woman. GARFIELD is intense and tough as the musician from the working class. Like GARFIELD's character in the film says "the two of them are like wrestlers circling each other". I wasn't sure why nearly every one of their encounters was fraught with tension but it is all revealed in CRAWFORD's monologue towards the end of the film.Oscar LEVANT keeps things from getting too dark and melancholic. He is almost always around when GARFIELD and CRAWFORD are running around circles around each other. His character seemed to be straight out of a noir film. I'm usually not a big fan of these intense romantic drama's but I liked this one because of GARFIELD and CRAWFORD.(7/10)

I've seen this film before but decided to watch it again tonight. After all, I couldn't exactly remember whether I liked it or not. But before it even began, I wondered by Warner Brothers cast the film the way they did. First, Joan Crawford seemed a bit scary as the patron/romantic interest. Second, who would believe tough-guy John Garfield as a concert violinist? Despite this odd casting, is the film worth seeing? Possibly....possibly not.To try to describe the film, it's a lot like combining "Golden Boy" (the William Holden boxing/violinist film) and "A Star is Born". John Garfield has a gift--he's a world-class violin player. But on his way up, he attracts a screwy patron (Crawford) who manages both to help him and screw him up at the same time. For Garfield to break free and attain all he's meant to become, something has to happen to this ill-fated relationship (think 'Norman Maine').The acting is generally pretty good, but one serious problem bothered me. The film was so incredibly overly-dramatic. Towards the end, the combination of intense music, over-emoting and tension just about made my head explode...and I think the director seriously overdid it. It was, at times, almost comical--it was THAT intense. However, it was, apart from that a pretty good film. But, if the way this was handled is too much and you are not a huge fan of hard classical music, then this just might be one best skipped.

With the help of a neurotic patroness, a poor violinist achieves fame and fortune, but can their stormy relationship survive? Garfield reached the peak of his brief career, appearing in this, "Body and Soul," and "Gentleman's Agreement" in succession. He is well cast as the driven, arrogant fiddler. Crawford is also well suited to the role of the benefactor, going for the melodramatics as only she could. Levant provides hilarious comic relief as a wise-cracking pianist. Naish and Nelson are excellent as Garfield's parents. Much of the screen time is devoted to extended excerpts from some of the greatest music ever written for the violin, a treat for classical music lovers.