I would like to dedicate this review to someone not so special
who was a violinist that I was head over heels gaga gugu for
until I learned that violinists only love three things:
themselves, their fucking violin, and themselves
and this movie is about Joan Crawford who falls in love
with a violinist who looks like John Garfield
and she doesn't yet know that violinists only love three things:
themselves, their fucking violin, and themselves
but by the end of the movie, she will know, too!

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Humoresque has glimmers of real passion, but it’s just so bogged down by the weight of its overblown story. The film can’t escape its own seriousness. I’m a big fan of both John Garfield and Joan Crawford— they’re enticing on screen together, when the film allows them the chance. However, beyond the performances, an aspect of the film I did enjoy is the unique editing and gorgeous cinematography. Unlike a lot of music-centered movies, the music here is not a separate entity from the action of the plot. It melts Garfield’s violin performances with close-ups of Joan Crawford’s face, and the film crescendos so beautifully to a magnificent climax. I wish I liked this film more, but it could have really benefited from a tighter runtime (and more Joan Crawford).

3.1/5

Me and melodrama move in mysterious ways. One day, I hate it, the next, I love it. Rinse, repeat. But melodrama has my attention when a precocious violinist played by John Garfield gets mixed up with an imperious Joan Crawford as a patroness of the arts, or rather a possessive, lonely woman used to collecting and manipulating soft men. In Humoresque, what I normally find overwrought is transfixing. The music can swell, and the conflict between art and love can rise to a level of indulgence that could be downright ludicrous in other films, yet I'm sucked into the film's orbit. Oscar Levant's cheap wisecracks only drew me in more. Melodrama can be a beautiful thing sometimes.

JOAN CRAWFORD IN GLASSES

This movie is entirely Joan's. She steals the picture from the very first second she makes her entrance, and delivers an amazing performance as the complex and spellbinding Helen Wright. Forever my favorite movie.

One of my very favourite Joan Crawford performances. A wonderful film if you love classical music, or any sophisticated music in general. Great Isaac Stern violin, making John Garfield's excellent portrayal of a struggling artist desperately trying to find his path really come alive. The film's only Oscar nomination (Franz Waxman lost for Best Score of a Drama or Comedy to Hugo Friedhofer for 'The Best Years of Our Lives') was well-deserved, and it must have been a banner year for cinema, as 'Humoresque' deserved a great many more. This is essential for Crawford aficionados, from the very peak of her career, and came in an excellent boxed set I have of her films on DVD.

Happy birthday Joan! This is so long I found myself begging for it to be over.

"OOOOOOOOOOH, MS. CRAWFORD!" - my mother and I when joan crawford did anything this movie

okay so i didn’t like any of the characters in this movie wdhkghdsfdh BUT i can’t deny they didn’t give amazing performances especially joan crawford i mean that last scene............*chefs kiss* 

oh and john garfield playing the violin???? ik it wasn’t really him but damn kudos to the creative department bc i constantly had to tell myself it wasn’t him 😭

Joan Crawford’s glasses!!!

Joan Crawford and John Garfield are soooo hot in this movie in a way I can't even describe. A rapturous and absorbing melodrama with great performances.

o mar serenou quando ela pisou na areiaaa quem samba na beira do mar eh sereiaaa🌊🎶🎻🌊
ps: minha expectativa de vida aumentando em 5 anos toda vez q a joan crawford botava os oculos💃🏻

Starts off strong and ambitious for a melodrama but ends up belabored under a story that’s a little too unwieldy. Still, some solid Crawford and Garfield moments.

Wealthy milf Joan Crawford, smexy John Garfield with a violin, a pretty girl-next-door, and a witty pianist. What more can I say?

this really didn't have to be 2 hours long. 3 stars because Joan looked stunning

This was so boring. The central relationship between Crawford and Garfield was interesting enough, but the film could have been forty minutes shorter. I can't wrap my head around these bloated musical sequences that did nothing to further the story. Anyway, I liked Crawford in this. She's never gonna be my idea of a brilliant actor, but I kinda root for her just the same. Garfield was realistic and minimal but on the whole a little too flat. I've meant to see this, I likely won't rewatch.

Es difícil discernir si Negulesco esta satirizando el virtuosismo o si esta tratando desesperadamente de emularlo. En todo caso, esa duda anima la grandeza de una película tan visceralmente trágica y bella como "Humoresque".

Just to be clear, this isn’t a Joan Crawford vehicle, it’s a John Garfield vehicle about class that also happens to have a bunch of scenes of Joan drinking.

I love that in the opening, his family is clearly Jewish, but not explicitly so.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.