It’s not a great film musical, but there is some great music contained in Song of Norway, and its picturesque cinematography and great singing by Frank Porretta and Florence Henderson give it some distinction.
The Production: 3/5
Probably the least requested movie of the counterculture revolution era of the late 1960s and early 1970s would have been a film version of a 1944 Broadway operetta featuring the life and music of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Nevertheless, Andrew L. Stone’s Song of Norway was produced and released in 1970 resulting in general critical and public apathy. Though the stage show had run two years during the tumultuous last years of World War II, the Grieg classical pieces rearranged and set with lyrics simply weren’t what most people were looking for in their movie entertainment of the era (as witnessed by similar lackluster results for Lost Horizon and The Great Waltz, two similar music-heavy movies too old-fashioned for then-modern audiences). Seen today, the film’s similarities to The Sound of Music are obvious in places, but the narrative isn’t engrossing enough to carry the burden of its music-heavy construction (forty Grieg pieces turned into twenty-five musical numbers).
Young composer Edvard Grieg (Toralv Maurstad) wishes to give his homeland Norway its own unique musical sound, but he’s thwarted every step of the way by short-sighted Norwegians who can’t recognize the quality of his work and look down on him due to his lack of stature in the international music community. His girl friend Therese Berg (Christina Schollin) tries to use her family’s wealth to further Edvard’s career, but her father (Robert Morley) blocks her every move and eventually forbids her to see him any more. Finding a kindred spirit in composer Richard Nordraak (Frank Porretta), the two men work tirelessly to get Grieg’s compositions heard and appreciated by imminences such as Hans Christian Andersen (Richard Wordsworth), Henrik Ibsen (Frederick Jaeger), and Franz Liszt (Henry Gilbert), aided by the charming singer Nina Hagerup (Florence Henderson), but winning audiences to his new compositions proves to be a daunting uphill struggle.
Director Andrew L. Stone took only some of the narrative ideas from the Broadway operetta created by Robert Wright and George Forrest (who also took the Grieg classical pieces and restructured them into songs with lyrics), fashioning his own scenario of artistic struggle that was no more interesting than the stage story and inserting into it a different if equally tiresome love triangle which mars the film’s last half hour. Only six songs from the stage operetta were used in the film score, the balance being new adaptations of Grieg pieces by Wright and Forrest. Certainly the film’s most memorable tunes are the more familiar ones from the stage, but some of the new tunes are just fine for their purpose: Edvard’s haunting “Strange Music,” Nordraak’s robust title song, the charming Act II beginning production number “Be a Boy Again,” and his moving, climactic “Three There Were,” and Nina’s “I Love You.” Other rousing songs include the trio’s “Hill of Dreams” (a true highlight of the film), the seasonal delight “It’s Christmastime” (with the mellifluous tenor of Harry Secombe, Mr. Bumble from Oliver!), and another from the stage “Midsummer’s Eve,” the best of a number of songs which use photographic montages to wow audiences who might have been viewing the movie originally in Cinerama (actually Super Panavision). But Stone clearly is uncomfortable with musical structuring: the production numbers are sometimes broken up abruptly (both the opening number “The Life of the Wife of a Sailor” and the completely unnecessary “Freddie and His Fiddle” are sectioned between dialogue scenes to no purpose and destroy the continuity of Lee Theodore’s choreography), and Florence Henderson’s introductory song with a group of adoring children “A Rhyme and a Reason” couldn’t be more obviously and shamelessly patterned on “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music. Additionally, an animated sequence featuring Grieg’s Peer Gynt music comes out of nowhere and grinds the movie to a complete halt.
If you’re going to film an operetta, either get a talented singer for your leading man (John Boles, Dennis Morgan, or Gordon MacRae for The Desert Song, Lawrence Tibbett in The Rogue Song) or find a ghost singer who can dub him successfully (Mario Lanza’s vocals used by Edmond Purdom in The Student Prince). They’ve done neither for Song of Norway. Toralv Maurstad, a rather inexpressive actor to start with, has very little in the way of a singing voice, so most of Grieg’s songs from the stage have either been dropped or are talk-sung by Maurstad. Thankfully, operatic tenor Frank Porretta can pick up the male musical slack as Richard Nordraak, the most expressive and vivacious actor in the movie with ringing, rousing vocals. Florence Henderson has a pretty and clear soprano that can express warmth and feeling but without the bell-like clarity of a Shirley Jones or the power of a Deanna Durbin. Christina Schollin is an okay romantic rival as Therese Berg while guest stars Harry Secombe, Robert Morley, Edward G. Robinson (as a piano salesman), and Oskar Homolka as a town bigshot all produce exactly the kinds of characters one would expect from their presence.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film has been framed at 2.35:1 and is presented in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. Though most of the film looks simply splendid with excellent sharpness, robust color, and precise contrast, there are some curious instances of crimping in the center of the screen on a couple of occasions, impossible to ignore at the very center of the image. Otherwise, the image is spotlessly clear. The movie has been divided into 10 chapters.
Audio: 4/5
The disc offers the choice of a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo surround track or a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix. Neither offers great activity in the rear channels though the front soundstage is full and offers good fidelity. Dialogue and song lyrics are relegated to the center channel. There are no problems with age-relate anomalies like hiss, pops, crackle, and flutter. This version of the movie does not offer overture, intermission, or exit music.
Special Features: 2/5
Audio Commentary: film historians Lee Gambin and John Harrison contribute a talky commentary more notable for talking about almost everything but Song of Norway taking frequent side roads to discussing other film musicals, other popular movies of the era, and information about real life people portrayed in the film but in very peripheral roles.
Kino Trailers: Sweet Charity, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Clambake, Daddy Long Legs.
Overall: 3/5
It’s not a great film musical, but there is some great music contained in Song of Norway, and its picturesque cinematography and great singing by Frank Porretta and Florence Henderson give it some distinction.
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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