Specter of the Rose (1946)

Waste of Money.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

This is a delightfully campy melodrama that delights in its often unintentionally funny script by Ben Hecht. It also features one of the mist delightfully bad performances from its sexy but shamefully rotten leading man, Ivan Kirov, who gets to say lines such as "I'd like pick you up right now and hold you until you were tattooed on me" while sounding like Jack Nicholson. Leading lady Viola Essen isn't much better, but she's a reactor to his character's madness, and doesn't get the chance to speak such outlandish lines.Coming two years before the classic ballet movie, "The Red Shoes", this deals with a sensitive yet masterful ballet dancer (Kirov) who may or may not have killed his wife before a performance of "The Spectre of the Rose" ballet. Imperious ballet instructor Judith Anderson, once a great ballet star herself, warns Essen of the danger, but she refuses to listen. When Kirov dances (especially shirtless), he has everybody's attention, but perhaps he should have kept his mouth closed.Top billed Anderson gets many showy moments, but while her lines are often very funny, she delivers them masterfully. On the cusp of her great theatrical triumph in "Medea", this film is as close to her stage work as she got, even as the notorious Mrs. Danvers in "Rebecca". Another great performance comes from Michael Chekhov as a hanger on who becomes Anderson's confidante. Lionel Stander gets some great lines as well, making the real star of this art house film its script. This ranks as one of Republic pictures great artistic films, showing what it could do on an A budget.

Ben Hecht's major off the rails story about the possible murder of a ballet's star's first wife.It's a very deliberate film full of beyond purple prose and performances that are way to over the top to be anything but deadly serious. Laughably bad, I sat staring at the screen for fifteen minutes wondering what the heck I was watching, unsure if I should be laughing or not- finally I just started to laugh and went with it...I had no clue why anyone would chose to do this deliberately- especially when its some one who should know better. It was painfully awful in a way that only films that are supposed to be works of art can be. It's a film to make you go- you have got to be f-ing kidding me over and over again

This Ben Hecht film is one-of- a-kind. it's about the ballet world and might remind you a bit of The Red Shoes on a superficial level. However this film is quite different-more perverse and it contains some REALLY erotic dialogue between the young lovers--the wonderful Ivan Kirov and Viola Essen. Judith Anderson, Michael Chekhov and Lionel Stander are also superb. Ben Hecht wrote, produced and directed this film--too bad he didn't attempt more directing!! A must-see!

You must see this movie. We were baffled and amused by the incomprehensible dialogue, stone-faced acting, and ridiculous plot of this ballet/murder mystery written and directed by Ben Hecht(!?). Actually, we were more than amused, we were in physical pain from continual laughter! Dame Judith Anderson manages to rise above this surreal debacle and provide an intelligent performance. On the other end of the scale is legendary acting teacher Michael Chekhov, nephew of Anton, who is so over-the-top that doubts arose in our minds about his acting theories.The fact that Hecht, writer of hard-boiled cynical tales (The Front Page), would write such loopy dialogue leads us to theorize he meant this to be tongue-in-cheek. We can only hope.See this film!