SONG OF NORWAY (1970)

I don't really have a bucket list of hard-to-find movies that I'm desperate to see. The ones I did have (the 1949 Great Gatsby, Alias Nick Beal, The Constant Nymph, the 1929 version of The Letter with Jeanne Eagels, the early Fu Manchu films with Warner Oland, etc.) I’ve managed to see. But this one comes close. It's one of those big-budget musicals from the 1965-1973 era that bombed rather spectacularly and led to big losses for studios. Some of these movies are indeed pretty bad and have become camp classics, like the infamous Lost Horizon musical which I've seen but haven't had the fortitude to review here yet; some, viewed without the bundle of expectations that existed at the time of their release, aren't all that bad (Darling Lili, Paint Your Wagon). This one falls somewhere between awful and OK. It's the story of the early life of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (Toralv Maurstad) from the time he was a young man, eager to begin a homegrown tradition of music apart from the German music that predominated in the mid-19th century. In the beginning, he's quite full of himself, but he can't get anyone important to take him seriously. His girlfriend Therese (Christina Schollin) comes from a family of money and power but her father is dead set against the couple. When Therese asks her father to anonymously sponsor a recital for Grieg, he agrees but stipulates that she must never see or communicate with Grieg again and must enter into an arranged marriage with a more suitable man. Eventually in Copenhagen, he meets up with his cousin Nina (Florence Henderson) and becomes best friends with Richard Nordraak (Frank Porretta), himself the composer of Norway's national anthem, who believes in Grieg's dream of a new national music. When Grieg gets a letter from Therese that her father is dead and her arranged marriage is off, it's too late—he is literally walking down the aisle marrying Nina. The rest of the film follows Grieg's ups and downs (including the untimely death of Nordraak from TB), and run-ins with folks like Henrik Ibsen and Hans Christian Andersen. The story ends just as Grieg is about to achieve fame. [Pictured at left are Porretta, Henderson and Maurstad)

As with most big flops with bad reputations, this isn't quite as bad as it’s made out to be. The pluses: beautiful photography of the lovely locations in Norway, some fun production numbers (all the music is based on Grieg), decent performances, especially from Porretta and Schollin, and a nice supporting turn from Edward G. Robinson. I'll even defy scads of critics and say that Florence Henderson is fine as Nina; I think her image as Mrs. Brady in TV's The Brady Bunch created unwarranted prejudice against her. The minuses: the story is repetitious as Grieg keeps getting disappointed, keeps reacting rather petulantly, and keeps relying on his friends to move him forward. In the first half, the sheer number of songs (mostly unmotivated) becomes numbing, and in the second half, there aren't enough. Porretta has way more charm and personality than Maurstad and I was sad when he mostly vanished from the narrative at the midway point. Maurstad is a little wooden and can’t sing very well. When you have more invested in the supporting player than the lead, something's wrong.

But honestly, the biggest problem is that it tries so hard and so unsuccessfully to be another Sound of Music. The poster art features the main trio romping across hills just like Julie Andrews did (see picture at right); the opening is a series of shots of Norway mountains and lakes; even though there are no children in the story, many of the production numbers are stuffed with children, foreground and background, whose only purpose is to remind us of "Do Re Mi"; as good as Henderson is, she's not Julie Andrews. To be sure, there are other problems and quirks. During an otherwise pleasant Christmas sequence (which includes a moment reminiscent of "Who Will Buy" from Oliver), we get a fantasy scene with some kids getting chased by animated trolls in real nature settings. The animation is fine, but why is it in the movie in the first place? No matter how hard the director, Andrew L. Stone, and the studio try to make this a family movie, it's not. It’s rated G but the themes and incidents are not ones likely to appeal to kids. I think my favorite moment in the movie is when Nordraak sings "Three There Were," a passionate ode to his dear friends Edvard and Nina—frankly, it sounds like he's describing a ménage a trois, and I would love to have seen that developed further. This can't be dismissed as bad camp but it also can't be hailed as a good movie. Basically, it's a watchable movie for musical fans. [DVD]