The Mozart Story
Cast & Crew
Hans Holt
William Vedder
René Daltgen
Wilton Graff
Winnie Markus
Irene Von Meyendorf
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In Vienna in the 1790s, musician and composer Joseph "Papa" Haydn visits the Musical Director of the Imperial Court, Antonio Salieri, and accuses him of gathering all of the late composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's works in order to burn them out of jealousy. In response, Salieri tells Haydn the story of Mozart's life: In 1775, gaining fame throughout Europe as a child prodigy, Mozart's father sends him to audition for a position as court musician in Mannheim. There Mozart meets Madame Weber and quickly falls in love with her daughter Louisa. Over the next weeks, he composes the song "To Her, the Beloved" for her, and Madame Weber, who believes Mozart is destined to hold a place at court, encourages him to help her daughter with her singing career. At that very moment, however, Salieri is discouraging Baron Gemmingen from hiring Mozart. A few nights later, during a ball at the Duke of Mannheim's, Mozart discovers that although Louisa has just won a place at the winter season opera because of his help, he himself has been passed over. He tells Louisa of his plans to try out for the Viennese court, and she promises to continue to love him, even as her mother pulls her away. At the station the next day, however, only Louisa's sister Constance sees him off. Three years later, Mozart petitions once again for a position at court, and Salieri again burns his letters. Mozart's friends convince Strack, the chamberlain to the Emperor, Joseph II, to play Mozart's music for the Emperor, who then commissions him to write an opera. Meanwhile, Louisa, now a married prima donna, moves to Vienna with her family, and when Mozart visits them, he and Constance fall in love. Madame Weber throws him out of her apartment, prompting Mozart to write the opera Abduction of the Seraglio, the story of a forbidden love, and to elope with Constance. Years later, the Emperor watches the completed opera as Constance gives birth. The piece is a success, but within days, Salieri cancels the remaining performances, prompting his writing partner, Da Ponte, to leave to work with Mozart. Together they write The Marriage of Figaro for the Emperor, and Louisa sings the main role. At the premiere, Constance cries as Louisa sings the love songs Mozart has written for her. Soon, Salieri bans the opera, but the Prague court commissions Mozart to write Don Giovanni , again with Louisa as its star. This time, Constance leaves a goodbye note on his music sheet, planning to run away, and as the music expresses his desperation, he runs after her and pledges his love. Salieri then hires Mozart to write the opera The Clemency of Titus for the coronation of King Leopold of Bohemia in only eighteen days, knowing that this task will exhaust him. After the opera's inevitable failure, an ill and dejected Mozart struggles to write his next opera, The Magic Flute , while at the same time composing a funeral requiem. Fellow musical prodigy Ludwig von Beethoven visits to play for him, and Mozart admires the younger musician's commitment to pure art. Now only thirty-five years old, but prematurely old and tired, Mozart feels he can only live on in his music. Although The Magic Flute is a huge success, Mozart relinquishes all rights to the opera in return for money to pay his doctor's bill. Salieri, moved by the genius of the opera, rushes to the composer's house to apologize, but arrives just as Mozart dies. He finishes the story by telling Haydn that he has lived the rest of his life haunted by guilt, and has gathered all of Mozart's music to preserve it, in repentance.
Cast
Hans Holt
William Vedder
René Daltgen
Wilton Graff
Winnie Markus
Irene Von Meyendorf
Walther Janssen
Annie Rosar
Carol Forman
Tony Barr
Paul Hoerbiger
Thea Weiss
Susi Witt
Theo Danegger
Curd Juergens
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Rosa Albach-retty
John Siebert
Richard Eybner
Eric Nocowitz
Fred Imhoff
Carl Bluhm
The Vienna State Opera
Crew
G. Anders
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Richard Billinger
Henry Brunsch
Lorenzo Da Ponte
Glen Glenn
Abraham Haimson [american]
Karl Hartl
Axel Hubert [american]
Paul Ivano
George La Brousse
Alois Melichar
Ray Mercer
George Moskov
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Johann Emanuel Schikaneder
Arthur St. Clair
Gottlieb Stephanie
Frank Wisbar
Frank Wisbar
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although a print of this film was not available, most summary and credit information was taken from a cutting continuity. While most reviews refer to the actor who played "Joseph Haydn" as Edward Vedder, other sources list him as William Vedder. According to a December 1948 Los Angeles Examiner article, the film's singing voices were provided by opera stars such as Erna Berger, Willi-Domgraf Fassbaender and Eugen Roth.
As recounted in the film, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was born in Salzburg, Austria and by the age of three, demonstrated a musical genius. By five, he was composing music, and quickly became the toast of Europe, touring to exhibit his skills. In 1782, days after the successful debut of his second opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio, he married Constance Weber. Over the next decade, the inability to sustain court positions caused Mozart to grow exhausted and impoverished, even as he continued to prodigiously produce great musical works. By 1791, overwork and poverty had exhausted Mozart, and he died at the age of thirty-five, buried in a grave which remains unlocated.
The Mozart Story was originally produced in Austria under the direction of Karl Hartl and released there in 1939, prior to the start of World War II. In 1948, American producer Abrasha Haimson, who is listed as Abraham in the screen credits, and director Frank Wisbar dubbed the picture into English, leaving the American voices uncredited, and added twenty-two minutes of dialogue and action. The Los Angeles Examiner article notes that the American producers spent a year "getting some of the actors de-Nazified" and painstakingly recreating the original settings and photography for the new footage. The new scenes mainly comprised the framing story involving Haydn and fellow musician Antonio Salieri. This picture also introduced actor Curt Jurgens, who is billed in the film under his German name, Curd Juergens, to an American audience.
The fictional Salieri-Mozart rivalry was also the subject of the 1984 film Amadeus, directed by Milos Forman and starring F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce. Other Mozart films include the 1936 British picture Whom the Gods Love, directed by Basil Dean, and Karl Hartl's second film about the composer, the 1955 picture The Life and Loves of Mozart, starring Oskar Werner.
