# Humoresque
**Humoresque** is a 1946 American melodrama directed by Jean Negulesco for Warner Bros., starring [Joan Crawford](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-crawford) and [John Garfield](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-garfield), adapted by Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold from Fannie Hurst's short story about a poor New York violinist whose rise to concert fame is entangled, in this film version, with a wealthy, married patron who falls in love with him.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) • [2](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100000999) • [9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17906/humoresque) It is best remembered for its music: [Isaac Stern](https://www.edgepedia.org/isaac-stern)'s violin playing dominates the soundtrack, Oscar Levant plays his own piano solos on screen and on the recording, and Franz Waxman's score earned an Academy Award nomination.[3](https://ftp.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/humoresque-wac-2025-bd) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038622/trivia/) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer | Jean Negulesco; produced by Jerry Wald for Warner Bros. Pictures[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) |
| Writers | Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold, from Fannie Hurst's short story[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) |
| Lead cast | Joan Crawford (Helen Wright), John Garfield (Paul Boray), Oscar Levant (Sid Jeffers)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) |
| Release | New York opening 25 December 1946; general release 25 January 1947; running time about 125 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) • [2](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100000999) |
| Music | Violin dubbed by Isaac Stern; piano by Oscar Levant; score and conducting by Franz Waxman, nominated for an Academy Award[3](https://ftp.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/humoresque-wac-2025-bd) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038622/trivia/) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) |
| Cinematography / editing | Ernest Haller; Rudi Fehr[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) |
| Predecessor | Remake of a 1920 silent film directed by Frank Borzage, itself from Hurst's 1919 story[5](https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/urban_films/humoresque) |
## Spoilers
### Story and cast
Paul Boray is a talented violinist from a poor, working-class background who lacks the connections to break into the concert world. Helen Wright, a woman-about-town who has those connections, sees him perform, becomes his patron, and opens doors he could not access; their relationship turns romantic, but Helen's destructive behavior, including heavy drinking, may be too much for Paul to bear.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/humoresque) In the film's ending, Helen walks into the ocean, an exit scored to the Liebestod (Wagner's climactic love-death aria from [Tristan und Isolde](https://www.edgepedia.org/tristan-und-isolde)) from Wagner's *Tristan and Isolde*, in a way that preserves Paul's career.[7](https://www.musicboxtheatre.com/films-and-events/humoresque) • [3](https://ftp.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/humoresque-wac-2025-bd)
The supporting cast includes [Oscar Levant](https://www.edgepedia.org/oscar-levant) as Sid Jeffers, Paul's friend, accompanist, and resident cynic; [J. Carrol Naish](https://www.edgepedia.org/j-carrol-naish) and Ruth Nelson as Paul's parents Rudy and Esther Boray; Joan Chandler as Gina; Paul Cavanagh as Helen's husband Victor Wright; and Robert Blake as Paul as a boy.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) • [8](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/humoresque-1946/) Levant's character is described by Variety as a thinly concealed version of Levant himself, supplying quips and safe advice.[8](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/humoresque-1946/)
## Production history
The project began as salvage. Warner Bros. wanted value from a very expensive and lengthy screenplay Clifford Odets had written for *Rhapsody in Blue* (1945), the studio's musical biography of [George Gershwin](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-gershwin), from which Odets' material had been cut; a 12 March 1945 memo from producer Jerry Wald to executive Steve Trilling records that large portions of Odets' script were originally written for that film.[9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17906/humoresque) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE)
Casting changed along the way. Undated press releases in the film's file at the AMPAS Library announced Irving Rapper as director, Waldo Salt as writer, [James Wong Howe](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-wong-howe) as cinematographer, and [Gig Young](https://www.edgepedia.org/gig-young) as star, and Hollywood Reporter news items reported that [Eleanor Parker](https://www.edgepedia.org/eleanor-parker) was first assigned to the female lead. When Crawford, fresh from the success of *Mildred Pierce* (1945), expressed interest, Wald moved quickly, and she took the role.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) • [9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17906/humoresque) Production ran from mid-December 1945 to mid-April 1946, with some scenes shot on location at Laguna Beach, California.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE)
The film's relationship to its source material shifted in adaptation. In Hurst's story and the 1920 silent film, the violinist was Jewish and that background was integral to the story; screenwriter Barney Glazer, who worked on an early version, wanted Paul Boray to remain Jewish, but his ethnic background was left unspecified in the finished film.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) Film historian [Frank Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-miller) notes that Crawford, though Garfield had the larger role, dominated the picture, from her first scene fending off admirers lighting her cigarette to the final walk into the surf.[9](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17906/humoresque)
## The music
Music is central to the film rather than incidental. The soundtrack contains about 23 classical numbers plus popular pieces for the café sequences, with works by Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Bach, and others, including the orchestral suite from *Carmen* with the violin taking the vocal line, the *Liebestod* from *Tristan and Isolde*, and the gypsy showpiece *Zigeunerweisen*.[8](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/humoresque-1946/) • [3](https://ftp.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/humoresque-wac-2025-bd)
**Dubbing the violin.** Producer Jerry Wald wanted [Jascha Heifetz](https://www.edgepedia.org/jascha-heifetz) to provide the violin playing, but Heifetz asked for too much money, so the virtuoso Isaac Stern was hired, credited as music advisor.[3](https://ftp.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/humoresque-wac-2025-bd) • [8](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/humoresque-1946/) The musical numbers were pre-recorded, and 16 mm films of Stern's performances were made so Garfield could study the hand movements. In some scenes two violinists stood behind Garfield, one doing the fingering and one the bowing; in close-ups of hands alone, the hands are Stern's.[3](https://ftp.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/humoresque-wac-2025-bd) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038622/trivia/) Oscar Levant, a celebrated concert pianist, played his own piano on the soundtrack.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038622/trivia/)
**Waxman's credit.** The titles read "Music conducted by Franz Waxman" rather than the usual "Music by," a compromise chosen because a composer credit was impossible for a score built largely on standard works. Waxman's contribution went beyond conducting: he shaped the musical format and program, linked and bridged the many numbers, wrote the background music, and composed two specially written concert works for violin and orchestra.[10](https://www.mjq.net/filmus/notes/1946-49/dec46-jan47.pdf) Waxman received an Academy Award nomination for the score, in the category then called Best Music Score of a Drama or Comedy Film, competing against [Bernard Herrmann](https://www.edgepedia.org/bernard-herrmann)'s *Anna and the King of Siam*, Hugo Friedhofer's *The Best Years of Our Lives* (the winner), William Walton's *Henry V*, and Miklos Rozsa's *The Killers*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE) • [11](https://filmscoreclicktrack.com/humoresque/)
## The 1920 silent film
Hurst's story first reached the screen in 1920. *Humoresque*, Cosmopolitan Productions Number 5, came out on 30 May 1920, directed by [Frank Borzage](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-borzage) from a Frances Marion scenario, with Gaston Glass starring as Leon Kantor, a young Jewish immigrant violinist whose gift lifts his family from the New York ghetto to [Fifth Avenue](https://www.edgepedia.org/fifth-avenue) and whose career ends when World War I injures his arm. It was the first film to make use of designer Joseph Urban's talents and became William Randolph Hearst's earliest major hit with both critics and audiences, taking the Photoplay Gold Medal for best picture of 1920 in the award's inaugural year.[5](https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/urban_films/humoresque) • [7](https://www.musicboxtheatre.com/films-and-events/humoresque) Hearst had Marion change the story's ending into an uplifting miracle, a resolution the 1946 version does not reproduce.[5](https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/urban_films/humoresque)
## Reception and standing
Contemporary reviews were largely favorable. Variety called it a romantic drama of topnotch caliber with name strength in Crawford and Garfield, noting that the footage runs over two hours without dragging because of the score's potency and the performance quality.[8](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/humoresque-1946/) The New Yorker's John McCarten was less warm, finding the central extramarital romance a cheerless pairing, though he noted that until Crawford appears the film is a fairly straightforward account of a poor violinist's struggles.[12](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/12/28/1946-12-28-044-tny-cards-000021518)
Later assessments have concentrated on Crawford's performance. AFI's Silver Theatre program note calls it perhaps the most deeply felt performance of Crawford's legendary career, alongside a mesmerizing turn by Garfield.[2](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100000999) The film also holds a place in accounts of 1940s Hollywood melodrama, listed by film scholars alongside works by William Wyler, Max Ophüls, Douglas Sirk, Nicholas Ray, and Vincente Minnelli as evidence of the genre's pre-eminence in the period.[13](https://apocalypsemelodrama.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/melodrama.pdf) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 57% Tomatometer from 7 reviews and a 71% audience score.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/humoresque)
## References
1. [Humoresque (1947), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24826-HUMORESQUE)
2. [Humoresque (1946), AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100000999)
3. [Humoresque (1946) Blu-ray Review, The Digital Bits](https://ftp.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/humoresque-wac-2025-bd)
4. [Humoresque (1946) Trivia, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038622/trivia/)
5. [Humoresque: Joseph Urban and Cosmopolitan Films, Columbia University Libraries](https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/urban_films/humoresque)
6. [Humoresque, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/humoresque)
7. [Humoresque, Music Box Theatre](https://www.musicboxtheatre.com/films-and-events/humoresque)
8. [Humoresque (1946) film notes quoting Variety, Toronto Film Society](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/humoresque-1946/)
9. [Humoresque, by Frank Miller, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/17906/humoresque)
10. [Waxman and Humoresque, by Louis Applebaum](https://www.mjq.net/filmus/notes/1946-49/dec46-jan47.pdf)
11. [Humoresque, Film Score Click Track](https://filmscoreclicktrack.com/humoresque/)
12. [Woe, Woe, Woe, The New Yorker, 21 December 1946](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/12/28/1946-12-28-044-tny-cards-000021518)
13. [Melodrama and genre scholarship, apocalypsemelodrama.com](https://apocalypsemelodrama.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/melodrama.pdf)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1940s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license