Song of Norway Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Song of Norway Blu-ray Movie Review

Climb every mountain, fjord every stream.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 17, 2020

Even those without much interest in musicals can probably easily name at least a couple of venerable songwriting partnerships which gave Broadway (and Hollywood) some of their most legendary pieces in the idiom: Rodgers and Hammerstein as well as Lerner and Loewe probably spring instantly to many minds, but there are innumerable others, including latter day duos like Bock and Harnick, Kander and Ebb, and Sondheim and Sondheim (that’s a joke, of course). While probably not quite at the level of any of those aforementioned iconic names, there was a rather interesting pair who had at least three pretty significant hits on Broadway (as well as a number of flops), with two of those hits having a further interesting connection that sets this duo apart from all of the others named above, as I'll get into in a moment. Robert Wright (who often went by the nickname Bob) and George Forrest (who often went by the nickname Chet) had met each other as teens in Miami and according to many became not just professional but also personal partners along the way. They ended up in Hollywood where as staff writers for Metro Goldwyn Mayer they received three Academy Award nominations for Best Song between 1939 and 1943. I would assume it was during their stint in Los Angeles that they must have met Edwin Lester, who ran the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. It was Lester who suggested that Wright and Forrest continue exploring a little “niche” they had cornered in their film work in adapting pre-existing classical pieces into popular songs, in this case by adapting the works of Norwegian “national composer” Edvard Grieg into a stage musical ostensibly about Grieg’s life to be called Song of Norway. Song of Norway initially opened in Los Angeles but then eventually matriculated to Broadway where it perhaps unexpectedly was rather well received in August of 1944, unexpectedly at least in terms of considering the fact that in a post- Oklahoma! environment on the Great White Way, one might reasonably assume that an old fashioned operetta might be considered passé.

Wright and Forrest continued to mine the work of classical composers for several of their subsequent musicals, which is the aspect to their careers that sets them apart from some of their contemporaries, as mentioned above. The most successful of these was Kismet, which adapted the music of chemist turned composer Alexander Borodin, but the pair also attempted the same technique, albeit with considerably less success, with regard to the music of both Victor Herbert for a musical called Gypsy Lady and Sergei Rachmaninoff for a musical called Anya. The latter musical may be of interest to fans of the animated version of Anastasia, since Anya was a musicalized version of the tale told in the Ingrid Bergman Anastasia. If Kismet was an outlier in a way, offering more of a traditional musical comedy ambience, many of the Wright-Forrest collaborations are pretty securely in the operetta idiom.

That very fact may be one reason why it seems positively bizarre that a major film of Song of Norway should have been produced in 1970, an era probably even less in tune (no pun intended) with the general zeitgeist of an operetta than even the 1940s had been. ABC was still trying to find its footing as a film production company, having had occasional hits like Charly, Take the Money and Run and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, but never really hitting one completely out of the ballpark. It's obvious that someone at ABC Pictures obviously thought that Song of Norway could ignite the same kind of "family musical" fervor that had greeted The Sound of Music, but even this idea seems absolutely boneheaded for 1970, considering the large number of outright flop film musicals that had appeared in the wake of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic starring Julie Andrews. But even putting that aside, there's a huge question looming over Song of Norway and its hoped for categorization as "the next Sound of Music": what exactly about a highly fictionalized biography of a Norwegian composer who shirks the love of his life in order to marry his cousin screams "family film musical" to you?

Song of Norway was probably hobbled not just by its subject matter but also its casting. Star Toralv Maurstad was not exactly a household name, at least in the United States, and neither was co-star Frank Porretta as fellow composer Rikard Nordraak (kind of hilariously, the cover of this release retains the key art featuring the star trio, but under Porretta's image lies the name of supporting actress Christina Schollin). That left the "marquee value" of the film in the perhaps questionable hands of Florence Henderson, then of course best known as Carol Brady on ABC television's The Brady Bunch. While certainly a gifted singer and appealing presence, Henderson didn't really even have much in the way of consistent musical theater bona fides, having appeared in only three relatively lesser known Broadway musicals, Wish You Were Here, Fanny and The Girl Who Came to Supper (she did portray Laurey in a short-lived revival of Oklahoma!). But her role in Song of Norway is pretty thankless and even mawkish in any case, and the film's "love story" is done no favors due to not just the fact that Grieg is conflicted about his marriage to Nina (portrayed by Henderson), but that Maurstad is nowhere near the singer that Porretta is, meaning that sung moments between Henderson and Porretta are far more effective than those between the ostensible focal couple.

There are two aspects to this film that are genuinely pleasing, however. There is some absolutely stunning location photography by Davis Boulton which shows off the jaw dropping beauty of Norway to often awesome effect. And the song score features some lush orchestrations by Roland Shaw performed with gusto by the London Symphony Orchestra. Unfortunately the actual music is often more or less divorced from the plot, with numbers just kind of showing up willy-nilly every few minutes.

Song of Norway Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Song of Norway is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber's Studio Classics imprint (which may be stretching the term "classics" to its breaking point) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As mentioned above in the main body of the review, one of the film's undeniable assets is its gorgeous cinematography, and it's generally very well rendered in this presentation. The many outdoor scenes offer a warmly suffused palette and some precise resolutions of things like mists in mountain passes or even the textures of grasses and flowers. Fine patterns on some of the elaborate costumes also resolve without any issues. There are occasional minor signs of damage in the form of small scratches and dirt. While the palette looks generally very good, there is a slightly purplish undertone to some scenes. Grain looks natural throughout the presentation.

Song of Norway Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Song of Norway features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. Along with the superb visuals of the film, the song score and underscore feature some really gorgeous symphonic treatments of Grieg's music, albeit in more of a "pop song" format at times. The surround track offers a good, spacious accounting of the instrumental forces, while also offering excellent support for the singing. The glut of outdoor material also features good placement of ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly for the most part, but the international cast does feature some performers with noticeably heavy accents. Optional English subtitles are available.

Song of Norway Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Author Lee Gambin and Film Historian/Author John Harrison

Additionally, trailers for other Kino Lorber releases are included, but not the trailer for Song of Norway.

Song of Norway Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kind of incredibly, despite the fact that Song of Norway was at least perceived as a notorious flop (it actually made a little money, if not a huge profit), producer and director Andrew L. Stone somehow convinced the once venerable "musical studio" Metro Goldwyn Mayer to release another Wright-Forrest operetta, The Great Waltz, in 1972. Suffice it to say it didn't exactly reinvigorate the by then largely moribund film musical genre. Song of Norway is an unwieldy behemoth with virtually no real emotional content, but it's at least visually splendid and the orchestrations are superb. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.