Le Chant du danube

In the mid-1930s, Alfred Hitchcock filmed a movie adaptation of the Viennese operetta pastiche based on the work of Johann Strauss Jr. "Walzer aus Wien" (1930). The result is somewhat clumsy because Hitchcock's cockney humor simply isn't a good addition to the waltz world of "An der schönen blauen Donau." But within the operetta production of that time, it is not a complete failure; although German/Austrian, Czech, and American operetta films are much better, they have their own spirit, which the genre demands, but unfortunately, the British approach is simply too dry. What is also important is that while Hitchcock's film premiered in March 1934, Broadway had its own adaptation of the same material prepared in September 1934 under the title "The Great Waltz" with a different arrangement. This influenced all subsequent film and television adaptations, which didn't pay much attention to the original Austrian operetta. (18/04/2023)