Humoresque ★★★½ 1946

Ta lented but struggling young musician Paul Boray (Garfield) finds a patron in the mar ried, wealthy, and older Helen Wright (Crawford). His appreciation is not as ro mantic as she hoped. Stunning performance from Crawford, with excellent supporting cast (Levant supplies the witty comebacks), including a young Robert Blake as a young Paul. Fine music sequences (Isaac Stern dubbed the violin), and lush production values. 123m/B VHS, DVD . Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Oscar Levant, J. Carrol Naish, Joan Chandler, Tom D'Andrea, Peggy Knudsen, Ruth Nelson, Craig Stevens, Paul Cavanagh, Richard Gaines, John Abbott, Robert (Bobby) Blake; D: Jean Negulesco; W: Clifford Odets, Zachary Gold; C: Ernest Haller; M: Franz Waxman.

humoresque (Fr.), Humoreske (Ger.). Title given by some composers to a lively and capricious (sometimes a little sad) instr. comp. Famous examples are by Dvořák (particularly No.7 of his 8 Humoresques for pf., Op.101, 1894), and Schumann, for pf., Op.20, 1839. Mahler orig. conceived his 4th Sym. as a ‘symphonic Humor-esque’.