Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

TheLittleSongbird As an enormous lifelong fan of classical music and opera, 'Carnegie Hall' was seen with much eagerness and no hesitation. After seeing it, the film isn't great but there are also a lot of pleasures, though perhaps one will enjoy it better if a classical music fan to recognise the music and the stars involved.The weakest element of 'Carnegie Hall' is the story, which is pure paper thin hokum, that gets increasingly thinner, draggy and credibility straining as the film progresses. Didn't mind that it was a clichéd kind of story, there are a lot of clichéd stories in films that still work, did mind that not much interesting was done with the non-musical side of the film. Also at times feels too stretched and over-stuffed with a few scenes that go on a bit longer than needed and with too many characters.Contrived and flimsy scripting also works against 'Carnegie Hall', and most of the acting that's not the classical music stars is not particularly great with William Prince being rather anonymous. The sole exception in this regard is Marsha Hunt, who deserved better but brings authority, poignancy, firmness and dignity to her role.Onto the positives now. Much of 'Carnegie Hall' looks very pleasing, with some lovely noir-like lighting, atmospheric use of shadows and mostly fluid and eye-catching camera work (if admittedly a bit static in the early parts). It's competently directed, informative, inspiring and moving in the best of its parts, and absolutely nothing can be said against Hunt.Best of all are the music and the assemblage of classical music/operatic stars. On the musical side, 'Carnegie Hall' couldn't have been more blissful, with the opportunities of seeing and hearing Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Mozart, Delibes et al. performed so brilliantly being a joy, and while this may not be good news to some to me it was lovely to have musical selections sizeable in length, these pieces are just too good to only have in snippet form so having it done the way it was here felt like the music and performers were being done justice.With the stars, picking a favourite is impossible and you not only see them on top form but you see their personalities. The virtuosity of Artur Rubenstein in the Chopin, with those enigmatic flourishes, was a delight, and Jascha Heifetz plays Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto at a tempo that has never been done that fast and what sounds impossible is done with envious nimbleness by him with the intensity enough to make fires blaze. Leopold Stokowski features interestingly, again conducting Tchaikovsky in a way seldom done before, and 'Carnegie Hall' offers a rare chance of seeing Fritz Reiner and Walter Damrosch on film.As an opera fanatic, particularly of the "golden age of opera", it was even more of a treat seeing fairly rare glimpses of Lily Pons, Rise Stevens and Ezio Pinza in their signature roles and arias of Lakme, Carmen and Don Giovanni respectively, all three sounding glorious.Overall impressions are when it comes to the musical side of things 'Carnegie Hall' soars majestically. In the sections where story or drama is featured more, it does falter. 7/10 Bethany Cox

bkoganbing Long before Carnegie Hall came to the big screen, modern swing music arrived there with Benny Goodman and his clarinet with that famous concert in the late Thirties. So the idea behind the film was already quite dated.But the rather hokey plot of this film only serves as a frame for numbers by more classical artists than ever gathered on one movie at the same time. If you love classical music and the great artists who are no longer with us from the past than this is your movie and no review good or bad will have anything to do with whether you see it or not.Such as it is the story revolves around Marsha Hunt whose mother was a charwoman at Carnegie Hall and she started there as well and worked her way up to part of the management. She married and had a son who grew up to be William Prince who listening to the greatest classical artists around got a real musical education. But all Prince wants to do is play piano with Vaughn Monroe.Without giving too much away, let's say that the education was not in vain after all.With people like Walter Damrosch and Leopold Stakowski conducting symphonies and such artists as Lily Pons, Rise Stevens, Jan Peerce and my favorite Ezio Pinza on the screen, if you're a classical music fan this movie is a must for you. The story is easy to take as well and there's a nice performance by Frank McHugh as Carnegie Hall's eternal doorman.

urbisoler-1 I don't know if any of this constitutes a spoiler or not but better safe than sorry. I saw this film for the first time yesterday (4/9/13). This film is chock full of unbelievably marvelous music. Just one instance: Watch Arthur Rubenstein's left hand piano playing. You won't believe that he could possibly sustain those chords without error. Unbelievable! This film held my attention until the final sequence. The trumpet solo by Harry Kames was well done but the music was unmemorable. It is important to understand the reason for this film. It is not the story line which was mundane. It is the music performed by some of the greatest artists ever. I'm in the process of looking for a copy.

richard-1787 This is a movie about a young man and his mother. She sacrifices everything so that he can study to be a classical pianist. He falls in love with big band music and decides to pursue that. His mother is heart-broken. In other words, one long, slow cliché that has been done better elsewhere.If that's all there were to this movie, I would say "forget it." But in between these scenes of melodrama there are live performances by some of the greatest classical musicians of the 1930s and 40s, indeed some of the greatest classical musicians of all times. Their performances, often truly great ones, are not wedged in in bits and pieces. Rather, we get to watch Arthur Rubinstein perform the entire Chopin Military Polonaise - and then de Falla's Ritual Fire Dance. We get to watch Jascha Heifitz perform the entire last movement of the Beethoven Violin Concerto - and with what fire! We get to wonder as Leopold Stokowski completely distorts the tempo markings for an entire movement of a Tchaikovsky symphony, producing a series of remarkable moments that, for this listener, never came together as a whole - but still, what daring to pull Tchaikovsky apart like that. Stokowsky and Rubenstein both remind us of an era when classical musicians were also stage performers. Rubenstein bangs away at the keyboard with fantastic arm gestures. Stokowski is very clearly conscious of the angle from which he is being filmed. These are spectacular musicians devoted to the music, yes, but these are also colossal, theatrical egos.We get to see Ezio Pinza stand there in a costume that would be grounds for a law suit, yet sing Don Giovanni's Brindisi like no one else - and the opening of Il lascerato spirto, from Verdi's Simon Bocanegra, the only musical fragment in the movie.I saw this - most of it - on TCM. It is evidently available on DVD. I hope the DVD recognizes the dual nature of the movie and has the tracks arranged so that one can skip over the melodrama and just enjoy the remarkable musical performances.