Whom the Gods Love

Whom the Gods love is a classic example of the golden era in Hollywood, a beautifully sweet and endearing film that contains all the charms of its time period and by far one of the best portrayals of The heart of Mozart through its leading actor and war poet, Stephen Haggard. While the film itself does not exactly portray what the modern viewer may associate with Mozart (I.e. Amadeus) that in no way dismisses the charm and humor that this film from 1935 contains. Yes its story is non existent and you cannot easily explain the plot, it is an enjoyable watch and the cast is quite fun from Victoria Hopper as Constanze to the fun ensamble in the Weber sisters and once again, the late and great stage actor, Stephen Haggard portrays a Mozart who is both sweet, precious, and you can't help but to smile at his boyish personality and enthusiastic energy. The cast keeps the film alive and while it surely has aged like fine wine as an early talking picture, it does not deserve to be so heavily disliked as a film from the 30's. It was a time of great turmoil in the prelude to World War Two and the context of the era adds to why this film is as it stands. Like so many in its time, no one can deny the sweetness and the power of the humor in the film and it deserves to be seen more often than it has been. A beautiful film with a wonderful cast, a sweet romance in Constanze and Wolfgang. Yes, it's no Amadeus, but Mozart had movies before Amadeus and it is on their foundation that we have the famous Amadeus film and it is these films that are deserving of a bit of respect for having survived the test of time.

Basil Dean was one of the co founders of Ealing Studios ,he was managing director,producer and director.His partners were the Courtauld family. Dean was married to Vickie Hopper who was cast as the wife of Motzart.It is one of 3 mistakes he admits to his autobiography.The second was the casting of Stephen Haggard as Motzart.He admits that the part needed a star.Haggard is hopeless.The third was to concentrate on Motzarts private life.For this he blamed the writer. The film was very expensive and went well over budget.Furthermore he found it a had sell to cinema bookers.He asked one Manchester exhibitor if he would book it.The reply was "over my dead body"'So not surprisingly this film was a financial disaster.The Coutraulds told Dean that they felt betrayed.When he wrote his book in 1973 he still felt remorse.Even then he could not understand why he made the film.I am bound to agree with him.

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.