Blossom Time

Where Hitchcock's near contemporary Waltzes from Vienna relied on poorly worked-out gimmicks and the rather irrelevant talents of Jessie Matthews, Stein's Berlin/Hollywood apprenticeship enabled him to produce a classic musical biopic. Purists may well sneer at the representation of Franz Schubert as a popular singer/ songwriter, but Tauber's voice is magnificent and his minimally melodramatic acting fits perfectly this Ruritanian world where a fire-eating, snuff-sniffing duchess stands in the path of true love. The story may be flimsy, but the way Stein deftly moves it forward to its wedding-ritual finale is superb.