"Specter of the Rose" is a 1946 film noir thriller written and directed by Ben Hecht. It stars Judith Anderson, Ivan Kirov, Viola Essen, Michael Chekhov, and Lionel Stander, with choreography by Tamara Geva, and music by George Antheil, of course. Morton Scott as musical director and Charles Maxwell orchestrated Antheil's score (uncredited).
As has already been mentioned in The Juggler thread, the waltz from Specter of the Rose has been rerecorded. Twice actually, there is even a newly arranged version in three movements.
Listen:
The Chandos recording (released on: 2019-01-04) The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with John Storgårds
Arranged by Werner Gebauer for Violin & Piano (2018) Duo Odéon
I. Maestoso
II. Poco allegretto
III. Più vivo - À la valse
Conducted by Charles Gerhardt London Cinema Symphony Orchestra Produced by George Korngold (Varese Sarabande VSD-5207)
I've yet to see the film, but it's fascinating to consider the evolution of "La spectre de la rose."
1. A wistful poem of French Romanticism by Théophile Gautier. 2. A beautiful setting by Hector Berlioz in his song cycle Nuits d'été. 3. A ballet by Michael Fokine of Les Ballets Russes set to music by Carl Maria von Weber (Invitation to the Dance) as orchestrated by Berlioz. 4. The film by Ben Hecht with entirely new choreography by Tamara Geva and music by George Antheil.
The first three instances are all dreamily romantic. The nightmarish noir stuff comes in only with the movie. Something was in the air in 1946.
Here is an interesting bit of info from the Chandos booklet (CH10982) about SPECTER OF THE ROSE:
Quote:
An enticing conglomeration of camp acting, ripe dialogue, tongue-in-cheek humour, and sinister fantasy, the low-budget film noir Specter of the Rose was written, directed, and produced by Ben Hecht for Republic Pictures in 1946. The film’s score was composed by Antheil, orchestrated by Charles Maxwell, and conducted on the soundtrack by the studio music director, Morton Scott. Taking its title and inspiration from the short ballet mounted by the Ballets Russes in 1911, which was based on Berlioz’s orchestration of Weber’s piano piece Aufforderung zum Tanze (Invitation to the Dance), the film tells the gripping tale of a male ballet dancer who is suspected of having murdered his first wife and seems on the verge of dispatching his second wife in the same manner.
It is often incorrectly stated that the Berlioz / Weber score features in the movie, but this is not the case. The composer’s original music is strikingly eclectic, and embraces a dark romanticism, a harmonic opulence redolent of Ravel, and even (in places) a Stravinsky-like modernism. In 1947, Antheil rearranged and re-orchestrated some of the film’s seductively lush dance music as a concert waltz, in which form it was premiered on 6 November 1948 by the St Louis Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Golschmann.
