Specter of the Rose (1946)

★★★★★ · Hidden Gem · MAH00T · 2020-06-23

A very odd place for a film noir, the world of ballet, but it is done with a great cast and even better dancing (the husband of a ballet teacher who critiqued that portion). There should be more movies with Lionel Stander

★★★★ · Noir In Ballet · Gissinglover · 2022-12-09

Noir is a mood that can appear in film in many contexts. Noir appears, in part, in an unlikely place in the "Specter of the Rose", (1946), an early budget effort by director Ben Hecht for the independent and notoriously low-budget Republic Pictures. This is a strange film. It drifts back and forth between a satire and spoof of the world of ballet and high art with its snooty characters and often deliberately stilted dialogue. This is combined with a strong noir element as a young, gifted ballet dancer is accused, with strong reason, of murdering his first wife, another dancer, and seems to be…

Dreadful · V.Lind · 2020-09-24

I watched this because I could not find the story upon which it was based. Hard to believe that even in the 40s this sort of clichéd nonsense passed for art. Judith Anderson played a hackneyed role with all the conviction of a dandelion in the wind, and Lionel Stander was affected, mannered and utterly unconvincing. It was so badly written as to be unbelievable -- nobody had anything to work with. It could only have been made based on Hecht's reputation. A total waste of time -- and they did not even use the correct music for Le Spectre de la Rose.