La valse de la veuve joyeuse
Also known as The Merry Widow Waltz in the USA
(1908) France
B&W : [?] Split-reel?
Directed by Ferdinand Zecca
Cast: (unknown)
Compagnie Genérale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes production; distributed by Compagnie Genérale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes. / From the operetta Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow) by Franz Lehár with libretto by Leo Stein (Leo Rosenstein) and Victor Léon (Victor Hirschfeld). / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was released in the USA as The Merry Widow Waltz on 28 November 1908; in a split-reel with The Vagabond (1908).
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? A youth enters a café and while there he hears the Merry Widow waltz played for the first time and, like a great many more, went into raptures over the beautiful melody. He straightway goes to a music store and buys a copy of the famous waltz, and he is so much taken up with it that he forgets everything else and goes along the street humming the air, and, much to his surprise and amusement, he sees two policemen on their beat start to dance it. He is passing a house and hears a girl playing it on her piano, and the temptation is too much for him and he proceeds to dance, taking a lamp post for a partner. Next he is passing a street piano that is playing the air and a horse attached to a carriage starts to trip the light fantastic to its alluring strains. Finally he reaches his room and sits down to the piano to try it over and before he has proceeded far everything in the room is dancing around at a great rate. Then, to his surprise, the piano starts to move about, and as he keeps on playing he is swinging around in mid air, still strumming on the instrument.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: (unknown) [France]; Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 11 October 2023.
References: Weinberg-Stroheim p. 137 : Website-IMDb.
|