Whom the Gods Love

I have to give this a five because of the music. The material used for the soundtrack for the soundtrack was conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, a man who was one of the GREAT conductors of the twentieth century. Almost everything I've heard done under his baton literally sparkled with life and passion. He didn't just make orchestras work, he made them dance. His handling of Mozart's work, particularly the excerpt from the second act from Figaro transcends being just beautiful music and becomes the embodiment of pure heartrending joy.

At times it's almost enough to make this turkey of a film bearable. Almost …

Nothing could be good enough to give this gobbler credibility. The film follows the chronology of Wolfie's life (more or less) but beyond the music has little else going for it. The acting is awful and the dialog is worse. The characters (?) are barely one-dimensional and any of the factual information used as source material is rewritten into dribble. Wolfie, Constanze and all the other real people this clunker was meant to depict probably roll around in their graves anytime someone airs it.

The bottom line: ten of ten for the music but a minus five for this bow-wow on celluloid.