BEAUTIFULLY shot. Great musical performances. Witty and humorous lines, Oscar Levant got some pretty good one-liners. Joan Crawfords was gorgeous as ever! Even though her eyebrows were a little too thick (I find her eyebrows perfect in A Woman's Face). However the story doesn't really hold up, nor does the characters. Especially the mother? probably the worst mother on earth. Gina? Her role is very ineffective. Helen? I felt this role was too weak for Crawford, also very unreasonable. The acting was also stiff and contrived. John Garfield as a violinist wasn't convincing to me (maybe he's too deadpan?), and there's no chemistry between him and Crawford.

I love this movie, and I gave it ten stars. Although, this is mainly because of the presence of Oscar Levant in the cast. With out Mr. Levant, the movie would have been pretty good, but with his presence, it becomes sensational. I cannot understand why Oscar not receive at least a nomination for best supporting actor, or did he? At any rate, the casting director made a fabulous choice, for NO one on the planet could have played Sid Jeffers with as much skill, and panache. OK, on to the movie itself. It is a splendid representation of a struggling violinist who has quite an ego, which is sometimes the case with great violinists. Joan Crawford, as his devotee/lover was a good casting choice, although at times she over-did the assertiveness of the character when she first met Paul. But, maybe this is according to Hoyle, according to the book itself, which I have not read. The other supporting actors were excellent choices as well. So, here we have a great movie with a good plot, good acting (GREAT acting in the case of Mr. Levant- not really acting in the traditional sense, but a stage presence of GIGANTIC proportions). Also, the stupendous musical score throughout really makes one happy to be alive upon listening to it.

Good gravy... they don't make them like this anymore. "Humoresque" is a dark, melodramatic romance in which everything is played as Grand Tragedy, going so far over the top that it becomes difficult to take seriously. John Garfield is Paul Boray, the violinist so gifted that he can bring every woman in his life to tears with the beauty of his solos. Joan Crawford is Helen, the nearsighted socialite in an open marriage who lusts after Paul's artistic fruits.The movie opens with a flashback: a young John Garfield has a choice between a violin and a baseball bat... being a tortured artist at heart, he grabs the fiddle and his life is never the same. Helen manipulates Paul into falling in love with her under the pretense of advancing his career. Garfield's best buddy is an obnoxious wise-cracking pianist who has a "witty" comeback for every occasion: "Call me back in an hour- I should be asleep by then."If this was a silent movie it would have been a smash… John Garfield's face is perfect: good-looking, almost brutish, with a touch of pain and sadness in his eyes that makes him a fascinating screen presence. And Joan Crawford's face was perfect here, too: halfway between the big-eyed beauty that she was and the menacing monster she would become. If the film consisted of only extreme close-ups of the two leads it would have been a wonderfully rich story... instead we get extended sequences featuring maudlin violin music and pages and pages of stylized dialogue.The unforgettable finale- featuring the longest suicide in film history- is Joan Crawford at her hammy best. As John Garfield gives his greatest stage performance Joan is at their beach house, alone and despondent, heartbroken and inconsolable, and the violin music swells as we cut back and forth between the concert and Joan's snail-paced walk into the ocean. She pauses every few moments for a close-up, enormous eyebrows arched above her contorted features. Slowly... slowly... she makes her way into the surf, which seems to sense her pain and swallow her instantly. Alas, she is gone, and Garfield learns a valuable, tragic life lesson: The violin is the instrument of doomed romance. Deeeep...Next time take the baseball bat.GRADE: B-

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.