 |
Judith Anderson | Madame La Sylph |
 |
Michael Chekhov | Max Polikoff |
 |
Ivan Kirov | Andre Sanine |
|
Viola Essen | Haidi |
 |
Lionel Stander | Lionel Gans |
|
Charles 'Red' Marshall | Specs McFarlan |
|
George Shdanoff | Kropotkin |
 |
Billy Gray | Jack Jones |
|
Juan Panalle | Jibby |
|
Lew Hearn | Mr. Lyons |
|
Ferike Boros | Mamochka |
|
Bert Hanlon | Margolies |
|
Constantine | Alexis Bloom |
|
Fred Pollino | Giovanni (as Ferdinand Pollina) |
|
Polly Rose | Olga |
|
Jim Moran | Jimmy, Pianist |
| |
Ben Hecht | Director |
| |
Lee Garmes | Director of Photography |
| |
Harry Keller | Editor |
| |
George Antheil | Original Music Composer |
Specter of the Rose (1946) is a film written and directed by Ben Hecht, starring Judith Anderson, Ivan Kirov, Viola Essen, Michael Chekhov, and Lionel Stander and with choreography by Tamara Geva, and music by George Antheil.It is part ballet film and part murder mystery, with a male ballet superstar (Kirov) suspected of murdering his first wife (his former ballet partner) and now possibly threatening his new wife and ballet partner (Essen). Anderson plays an embittered ballet teacher, and Chekhov plays an impresario in a manner which "outdoes Clifton Webb in breaking down the door to The Celluloid Closet" (IMDb). Released by Republic Pictures, the film, also known as Spectre of the Rose was one of the few films that Hecht directed.The film has garnered a reputation as both "high camp" (in the Susan Sontag meaning of the word) and as a sincere effort to integrate classical music and ballet into a Hollywood film. Excerpts from the ballet Le Spectre de la Rose, which uses Carl Maria von Weber's piano piece Invitation to the Dance as orchestrated by Hector Berlioz, are featured in the film.
Freebase: Specter of the Rose, licensed under CC-BY
Wikipedia: Specter of the Rose, licensed under CC BY-SA