User reviews

After a successful tour ended in New York, the famous violinist Holger Brandt (Leslie Howard) returns to his home in Stockholm. In the birthday party of his beloved daughter Ann Marie (Ann Todd), he feels attracted by and plays with her piano teacher, Anita Hoffman (Ingrid Bergman), who is waiting for a music scholarship in Paris. They incidentally meet each other in a concert, have a drink together and begin a love affair. Holger leaves his family and travels with Anita in a tour, and later they spend vacation together. But Anita earns the expected scholarship and travels to Paris, and Holger decides to visit Ann Marie. A car accident changes the destiny of the Brandt family.

The debut of Ingrid Bergman in an English spoken film may be dated in 2006, but it is still a wonderful romance about a man in a middle age crisis, with a stabilized marriage, who sparks with the love of a talented gorgeous woman that worships him. The performances of Ingrid Bergman, Leslie Howard and Ann Todd are fantastic, and Ingrid looks like a pianist in the sequence in the birthday party. Her beauty shines in the awesome black and white photography and locations and her accent is lovely. The music score gives an additional touch of class to this film. The moralist conclusion seems suitable for the values of the society of 1939, leaving a message of forgiveness and understanding. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Intermezzo"

The picture deals with a young pianist (Ingrid Bergman) who acts as piano teacher of a child (Ann Todd) whose father( Leslie Howard) , happily married (Edna Best) , is a violinist . They fall in love and is originated the standard and eternal loving triangle . The movie has romance , tearjerker , drama, tragedy, a love story and is very entertaining .

The film is a remake in Hollywood style of a Swedish film directed by Gustaf Molander in 1936 and equally interpreted by Ingrid Bergman ; here plays his first US role , in fact , is best known as Bergman's American debut and became her in world star . Bergman is splendid and enticing , stunningly photographed by the maestro Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane) and she obtained extraordinary reviews . Leslie Howard is agreeable and sensible as the lover who bears a guilty feeling . Fine support cast is formed by Ann Todd as the daughter who strongly loves her daddy , Cecil Kellaway in one his usual roles as likable and comical friend and John Halliday . Excellent black and white cinematography and magnificent musical score by the master Max Steiner , nominated for Academy Award and being added classic music composed by Provost , Rachmaninov and Tchaykowsky . The motion picture will appeal to romantic films buffs and vintage cinema enthusiasts . Rating : Above average . Outstanding and enjoyable.

"Intermezzo" is a beautifully photographed, bittersweet story about a the love affair between a concert violinist (Leslie Howard) and a pianist (Ingrid Bergman). This was Bergman's second time at the role, the first time being in her native Sweden. This film catapulted her to fame. Her natural beauty and freshness is shown to wonderful advantage here, as is her sensitive acting in the role of Anita Hoffman.

Howard plays Holger Brandt, a married man with two children who leaves his wife and family when his affair with Bergman becomes too intense. Hoffman becomes his accompanist on tour, sublimating her own career plans because she wants to be with him. While vacationing, he becomes attached to a little girl who obviously reminds him of his daughter (Ann Todd), whom he adores, and Anita wonders if their illicit affair can ever bring them happiness.

The film is rich in subtext and metaphors. "Aren't you giving it too much importance?" Anita's piano teacher asks as she rips into a concerto. "We were all impressed with you the night you played here ... with my husband," Holger's wife says, asking Anita about her studies. "I really had no choice," Anita almost whispers. Even the title of his daughter's favorite piece that he plays, "Intermezzo" takes on a special meaning.

Few actors have cut the romantic, ethereal figure that Leslie Howard did during his film career. Tall, blond, with that soft voice and faraway look in his eyes, he makes a perfect musician who is always listening to a melody in his head. Though some people feel his phoned-in Ashley Wilkes doesn't hold up today, in fact, he was the embodiment of Ashley without making much effort, a soft dreamer with impractical values from another time. And so he is here, not thinking ahead and lost in a romantic fog.

A touching and dramatic film with very effective performances.

I normally don't gravitate toward melodramas nor would I approve, frankly, of a film that centers around adultery. However, this film has such much going for it that I wound up loving this movie the first time I saw it, and still do six viewings later.

Off the cuff, here are seven reasons why:

1) There IS a good message here: that a married person having a fling with a pretty young woman might be an exciting prospect but in the end, "you reap what you sow" and if either of the two parties has a conscience, the illicit romance will be doomed, especially if there are kids involved.

2 ) For male viewers, Ingrid Bergman, making her English-speaking debut, is a real feast for the eyes. She was one of the more naturally gorgeous women to grace the silver screen, I think.

3) Gregg Toland's photography. To fully appreciate his work, get the DVD for this film. Toland was one of the best ever, and this is a beautifully shot piece of work.

4) At 70 minutes, the film flies by, which also makes it easier to watch and enjoy multiple times.

5) Leslie Howard and John Halliday also were excellent in here as the two male leads. I thought Halliday, in particular, had some great words of wisdom.

6) For those who appreciate how difficult it is to forgive people, this ending contained another nice message.

7) Classical music lovers will very much appreciate the soundtrack to this film.

This remake of the Swedish film of the same name is worth a look because it's the first time American audiences got a chance to see Ingrid Bergman. Gregory Ratoff, the director, utilizes well the short time of the movie to present the melodrama in an appealing way.

From the beginning, we realize the attraction Holger feels for Anita is doomed. Holger has a loving wife as well as two children that clearly adore their distant father.Basically, Holger is a decent man who sees in Anita something that he doesn't have at home, which seems to happen whenever a fresh and beautiful woman arrives at the scene and the marriage is shaky.

Leslie Howard was an amazing actor. In this film he is not as effective as in his previous, much better appearances. Ingrid Bergman brought a freshness to Anita that is hard to imagine another actress playing her. We get a glimpse about a star being born, one that would shine forever.

In minor roles, Edna Best, plays Magrit, the long suffering wife. John Halliday is Thomas Stenborg, the loyal friend and former playing partner. Ann Todd is seen as Ann Marie Brandt, the daughter. Also, Cecil Kellaway plays Charles, Holger's manager.

This is a movie to watch because of the impressive debut of Ingrid Bergman, also because the glorious music.

...from United Artists, David O. Selznick, and director Gregory Ratoff. Leslie Howard stars as Holger Brandt, a world-renowned concert violinist who is returning home after a lengthy tour. He's happy to be reunited with his wife (Edna Best) and his children, but things get complicated when Holger falls for Anita Hoffman (Ingrid Bergman), the piano teacher to his young daughter. Their love becomes all-encompassing, leading Holger to leave his family to be with Anita. But will the call of family prove too strong to ignore? Also featuring John Halliday, Cecil Kellaway, Enid Bennett, Douglas Scott, and Ann E. Todd as Ann Marie.

This was a remake of a 1936 Swedish film that had also starred Bergman. This was an important film to Howard, who took the role of Ashley in Selznick's Gone with the Wind in order to get this movie made. It's more than a little corny, and I found the score to be intrusive and manipulative to an almost laughable degree. I also liked the initial "love" scene between Howard and Bergman, when she plays piano accompaniment to his violin playing, the two in deep concentration, while his horrified family and friends look on as if the two musicians are literally having sex in front of them. It's amusing, but not in the way it was intended, I would think. The movie earned two Oscar nominations, for Best Cinematography and Best Score.

(Some Spoilers) Touching 1939 tear-jerker that introduced to the movie going public here in the USA the beautiful and stalely 23 year-old Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman as Anita Hoffman. Who's the piano teacher for the young Ann Marie, Ann E. Todd, the daughter of famed concert violinist Holger Brandt, Leslie Howard.

After being a smashing success in America ending his concert tour at Carnegi Hall in New York City Holger tell his star struck admirers that he's leaving for his home in Sweden together his mentor and fellow musician Thomas Stenborg, John Holliday, to be with his family and get a long and well deserved rest from his grueling string of public performances. Back home with his loving wife Margit, Edna Best, and his two beautiful children Ann Marie and Eric, Douglas Scott, everything is wonderful for the Brandt family. Thats until Holger lays his eyes on Ann Marie's piano teacher, and also Thomas' music student, the stunning Anita Hoffman and it's love at first sight, or at first sound. Holger actually fell in love with Anita's music before he fell in love with her looks.

In no time at all Holger and Anita fall in love and both leave together for Europe as a duet, him playing the violin and Anita the piano, on the concert circuit. The two musical dynamos tear up the continent with record-breaking crowds attending their performances as Margit and the children are left behind in Sweden. With the only contact from their estranged husband and father being the radio that broadcasts his and Anita's musical acts.

Taking time off from their Europen tour the two lovers spend some time on the French coast where they run into Thomas who has, well both good and bad, news for them. The good news is that Anita has been awarded a scholarship to a major music academy and the bad news is that he has the divorce papers from Margit's lawyer for Holger to sign, which he doesn't. This bring a touch of reality into Holger and Anita's life where she realizes what she's done to the Brandt family by being the "Other Woman" in Holger and Margit's divorce papers. At the same time Anita tearfully leaves poor Holger all by himself by going back to Sweden to the music academy to accept her scholarship.

Holger soon becomes a man without a country, or family, as he bums around Europe afraid to go back home to face his family that he so selfishly destroyed by having an affair with Anita. Getting up enough courage to bring himself to go back to Sweden to give Ann Marie a birthday present, a camera, that he promised her soon turns out to be a tragedy. The happy Ann Marie, after seeing her dad, runs across the street from the school yard only to get hit by a speeding car and left in a coma.

Completely destroyed by his actions with his wife and son not even speaking to him and little Ann Marie on the brink of death or ending up crippled for life Holger, now for the first time, sees what a heel he was. Holger also sees how his love for another woman, who later left him, blinded him of all the good and wonderful things that he had in life. That he so foolishly threw away in the pursuit of his love, forbidden as it was, for Anita.

The movies contrived ending is a bit far-fetched but it's just how you would want it to end.Leslie Howard is perfect as Holger the tortured soul who was torn between the beautiful piano teacher Anita and his loving wife Margit. You could understand his actions even though you wouldn't agree with them. As for Ingrid Bergman as Anita? she was simply beautiful.

As I watched "Intermezzo" I couldn't help but remember that the leading man, leading lady AND executive producer all had well publicized affairs...which is odd, as the film seems to be a movie that shows how destructive such things can be. A case of 'do as I say, not as I do'.

Holger is a world-class concert violinist who is about to have a mid-life crisis. When he realizes how great his daughter's piano teacher is, he asks her to accompany him on the road as his accompanist. Soon after this, the pair have an affair. However, all is not rosey in Infidelity Land.

This is a very polished film that both romanticizes adultery AND condemns it at the same time....an odd thing but something it manages to pull off pretty well. Overall, a very good film but I think I preferred the original Swedish version...mostly because I think Ingrid Bergman's performance in the 1936 version seemed more natural and less overdone.

The familiar David O. Selznick gloss is all over this minor 1939 soap opera, most noteworthy as the American film debut of 24-year old Ingrid Bergman. She was brought over from Sweden by Selznick for this melodramatic remake of the 1936 film which brought her great acclaim in her homeland. Her fresh-faced beauty and natural manner are intoxicating as she plays Anita Hoffman, first a piano teacher to the young daughter of renowned violinist Holger Brandt and then his accompanist on a world tour. It's a brief movie, only seventy minutes long, directed by Gregory Ratoff (more famous as the ulcer-ridden producer Max in "All About Eve") focusing on the illicit affair that develops between Anita and Holger.

Much of the story has to do with the guilt they both experience in terms of the familial repercussions, and the ending reflects as much. A role away from his Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind", obviously the more important Selznick movie in production a the time, Leslie Howard plays Holger in his familiar erudite manner. Veteran character actor Cecil Kellaway (later the monsignor in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") plays the sage maestro who acts as the film's conscience. Scenes often seem strangely truncated to move the story briskly along. Beyond Bergman, the most accomplished aspects of the film are Gregg Toland's lush cinematography, Lyle Wheeler's art direction (making Monterey, California look very much like the Italian Riviera) and Max Steiner's romantic music (oddly uncredited). But the impossibly striking Bergman is the primary reason to see this predictably developed film. The 2004 DVD offers no extras.

At 70 minutes, the movie doesn't even seem forced at all, it goes by pretty quickly. My main problem with the movie is that there is no chemistry between Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman. Since their relationship is the entire movie, it shouldn't work, but somehow i actually liked it in spite of that. At the start, Bergman is giving piano lessons to Leslie's daughter and when he finds out she's really talented herself, they begin to have an affair. Leslie is separated from his wife and he goes on tour with Bergman. His wife wants a divorce and when she is accepted into some music school, she doesn't want to leave him. Leslie Howard does a good job and Ingrid Bergman is gorgeous.

'Intermezzo (1939)' is somewhat daring (for something released in 1939) because it focuses on an extra-marital affair, though it does ultimately condemn the practice. It's a lot more interesting than you may initially expect, coming quite close to being a properly nuanced examination of love, marriage and personal responsibility as they evolve over time. Of course, it pulls back just when you think it's going to do something truly radical (again, for the time). Nevertheless, it isn't as straightforward as you'd think and is intriguing because of it. It's actually rather unpredictable, too. The experience is somewhat forgettable after the fact, but its strong central performances and unconventional structure keep it engaging in the moment. 7/10

The genius of both Ingrid Bergman and Gregg Toland, both on ample display here, are the only sensible reasons to watch this code crippled meller. God, how I hate these Hays Office jobs where a swim in the adultery pool means instant wallowing and flailing in a tub of misery until the sin is renounced. And I use the phrase "tub of misery" advisedly for in George O'Neill's script and Gregory Ratoff's direction any joy is as fleeting as summer in Stockholm while remorse, guilt and gloom are all enveloping. Lost count of how many pained smiles Leslie Howard and Bergman exchange or how many tears flow down the lovely Swede's cheek. And when Howard's kid gets hit by a truck while running toward him I started to laugh. Maybe it was the image of Joe Breen going, "Take that, you sinners!" C plus.

PS...Was Max Steiner on bennies, or what? This has to be the most over scored movie I've ever heard. I mean, I realize this is a film about musicians but could you soft peddle it a little, Max?

For her first American film, David O. Selznick was taking no chances with his Swedish import Ingrid Bergman. Her debut film was to something she had previously done in Sweden, giving her a role she had already done and was comfortable while presumably she learned English. As we all know Ingrid Bergman learned it quite well indeed.

Intermezzo is the story of a world famous concert violinist played by Leslie Howard who comes home from a world tour with his piano accompanist John Halliday to wife Edna Best and children Ann Todd and Douglas Scott. By a stroke of coincidence Ann Todd's piano teacher Ingrid Bergman is also Halliday's pupil. At a party Bergman plays and Howard picks up the violin to accompany her.

That's it for him, the beautiful music they make together kindles a romance. She goes on tour with him and it's a romantic idyll. Except of course for Best and the kids.

This version of Intermezzo is a faithful remake of the original Swedish film and the reviews that Ingrid Bergman garnered insured her American stardom. This was a busy years for Leslie Howard and David O. Selznick with both of them also involved with Gone With The Wind.

The theme from Intermezzo is most often done as an instrumental, but words were actually written for it and Tony Martin made a hit record of it at the time film was out in theater.

Seen today Intermezzo and its romantic story hold up well today. Bergman and Best are at their best fighting for the same man and Leslie Howard's charm still comes through after almost 70 years. Intermezzo got two Oscar nominations for black and white cinematography and film editing, but this was the year of Gone With The Wind.

You didn't think David O. Selznick should have taken all the Oscars home from 1939. He grabbed enough of them that year as it was.

"Intermezzo" is a duly old-fashioned, if a bit clumsy piece of melodrama. It's a remake of the same name Swedish film made three years earlier, in which Ingrid Bergman played the same role. Her glowing on the screen is the main reason that makes "Intermezzo" worthwhile. Fortunately the film is only 70 minutes long. In this case, more would have been hard to sit through.

I actually bought this movie to complete my Leslie Howard collection as he is one of my all-time favourite actors ( he excels in the Scarlet Pimpernel and Of Human Bondage). However, he seems to exude a melodramaticism in this movie, he never appears to be comfortable in the role and uses a lot of wide-eyed reaction shots to get some point across that only he is privy to. Ingrid is wonderful as always and steals the movie with her freshness and innocence. Ann Todd is also a delight but even in his scenes with her, Leslie is "hammy" and awkward. A classic 30's movie where the moral outcome is never in doubt and honesty & duty triumphs over undying love. On my 10 scale I would only give it a 3 of out 10 for script/plot, an 8 for music, 9 for cinematography and on overall 5 for the acting.

In the eleven films she made in her native Sweden, Ingrid Bergman never wore makeup-with the exception for a role of a burn victim. It was assumed like all American actresses she would wear makeup in her first Hollywood movie, October 1939's "Intermezzo: A Love Story." Producer David O. Selznick, who brought Bergman, 24, over to the United States, didn't like how cinematographer Harry Strading was filming his first few shots of her. Firing the cameraman, Selznick, familiar with Bergman's on-screen Swedish look, asked Strading's replacement, Gregg Toland, why his new star was looking so ghastly. Toland said, "In Sweden they don't make her wear all that makeup."

Bergman was somewhat disappointed to receive the "glamour makeover" when Selznick first broached the subject to her. He wanted to dye her hair, pluck her eyebrows and cap her teeth. When she arrived on the set for the first week of filming, the makeup department, like they always did with other actresses, applied cosmetics all over her face. She immediately complained to the producer, "You must have liked me to bring me all the way over here," Bergman said, noting Selznick saw something in her when he signed her after seeing the original Swedish film 1936 "Intermezzo." Between her wishes and Toland's acute observation, Selznick instructed makeup to "lay off" with the cosmetics. Toland proceeded to reshoot all her scenes with her natural look.

Selznick, who was also supervising his epic "Gone With The Wind" at the same time, had nothing but complements for Bergman. She "is the most completely conscientious actress with whom I have ever worked," the producer said, "in that she thinks of absolutely nothing but her work before and during the time she is doing a picture. She practically never leaves the studio, and even suggested that her dressing room be equipped so that she could live here during the picture. She never for a minute suggests quitting at six o'clock or anything of the kind."

Bergman had labored long and hard to learn English before arriving in the states. Upon her Hollywood debut, she immediately received the adulation of multitude of fans, who in "Intermezzo: A Love Story" hoped violinist Holger Brandt's (Leslie Howard) illicit affair with his child's piano tutor, Bergman's Anita Hoffman, would work out. The romance went from flirtatious to a more serious turn when Holger persuaded Anita to go on tour with him, leaving his wife Margit (Edna Best) to watch the homestead. Margit found out about the affair and asked for a divorce. Meanwhile, Anita's guilt weighed heavily on her mind when Holger's friend, Thomas Stenborg (John Halliday), said "I wonder if anyone has ever built happiness on the unhappiness of others."

Actor Howard, reluctant to play Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With The Wind," was persuaded by Selznick to play the Confederate officer when he promised to make him the co-producer in "Intermezzo: A Love Story." The two movies were the final Hollywood films Howard appeared, making the remainder of his movies in his native England. Once the two productions wrapped, he returned to Britain when war was declared against Germany in September 1939. He starred in several World War Two pictures, but never returned to America, as he was killed in an aircraft crash from a Luftwaffe shooting in May 1943.

Bergman's the only actress to achieve star status, first internationally, then in America, playing in two separate movie versions of the same name and plot. The original Swedish 1936 "Intermezzo" was her first lead, giving her European exposure, while the 1939 "Intermezzo: A Love Story" propelled her as a fresh "natural" face for North American audiences. Film historian David Thomson called the movie "the start of an astonishing impact on Hollywood and America." A New York Tribune film critic noted, "Using scarcely any make-up, but playing with mobile intensity, she creates the character so vividly and credibility that it becomes the core of the narrative." The American Film Institute ranks Bergman as the fourth most popular actress in Hollywood history. 1939's "Intermezzo: A Love Story" was nominated by AFI as one of the Greatest Love Stories of All Time.

Intermezzo (this 1939 version) introduced Ingrid Bergman to English-speaking audiences. She'd already made the exact movie three years earlier, but it was in Swedish so no one knew or cared about it. In the story, Leslie Howard is a violinist who falls in love with his daughter's piano teacher, Ingrid. As a married man, he has a lot of conflict. Thankfully, Ingrid doesn't play the typical "other woman" who's just a villainess out to wreck a home. She's sweet and has a good heart; she's just unfortunately giving her one heart to someone who has already given his one heart to someone else.

These forbidden love romances are often melodramatic, but some people might be really moved by this story. I'm not the biggest Leslie Howard fan, but I do find him well cast in the role of a weak-willed man. If you do find yourself reaching for the Kleenex box, you might want to check out another Ingrid romantic drama where she falls for a married man: A Walk in the Spring Rain.