Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Running time: 115 minutes
Rhapsody (1954)
“Elizabeth Taylor strives for sweet harmony as a privileged young woman who must choose between the two musicians she loves. She first falls for a devoted violinist (Vittorio Gassman) and follows him when he goes off to musical studies abroad. There, she also meets a talented pianist (John Ericson) who tries to play the initially uninterested lady into his heart. As events and emotions unfold, the inevitable conflict arises: which man does she truly love, which one is better for her — and could both be the same person? Smoothly directed by musical movie maestro Charles Vidor, filmed in such romantic locales as Paris, Zurich, St. Moritz and Rome and showcasing vibrant renditions of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Beethoven concertos, Rhapsody is a moving and melodic treat.” [From the DVD]
Cast
Louise Durant: Elizabeth Taylor
Paul Bronte: Vittorio Gassman
James Guest: John Ericson
Nicholas Durant: Louis Calhern
Professor Schuman: Michael Chekhov
Effie Cahill: Barbara Bates
Bruno Fürst: Richard Hageman
Otto Krafft: Richard Lupino
Frau Sigerlist: Celia Lovsky
Dove: Stuart Whitman
Mrs. Cahill: Madge Blake
Edmund Streller: Jack Raine
Madeleine: Birgit Nielsen
Yvonne: Jacqueline Duval
Student-Pianist: Norma Nevens
Crew
Director: Charles Vidor
Producer: Lawrence Weingarten
Screenwriter: Fay and Michael Kanin
Based on the novel “Maurice Guest” by Henry Handel Richardson
Adaptation: Ruth and Augustus Goetz
Cinematographer: Robert Planck
Art Directors: Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse
Set Decorators: Edwin B. Willis and Hugh Hunt
Special Effects: A. Arnold Gillespie and Warren Newcombe
Musical Adaptation: Bronislau Kaper
Musical Compositions: Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky; Concerto No. 2 in C Minor for Piano and Orchestra by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Editor: John Dunning
Women’s Costumes: Helen Rose
Did You Know?
According to biographer Alexander Walker, MGM was set to pair Elizabeth with Richard Burton in Rhapsody, until the eye injury she suffered posing for promotional photographs for Elephant Walk (1954) postponed the film.