The Firebird (1934)

You won't be disappointed!

A Masterpiece!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The Firebird is a typical thirties whodunit that turns out to be a surprising overachiever as cast and crew put on a highly impressive display of collective film craftsmanship. Rather than just go through the motions with the standard stock characters reciting their lines director William Dieterle embellishes the proceedings with both comic and suspenseful incidentals, character nuance and a pace that only flags occasionally as he keeps the audience off balance with a myriad of suspects moving about the luxury apartment complex like characters in a Feydeau farce.Herman Brandt, a popular stage actor begins to pursue a politician's wife who rebuffs his brazen advances but rather than make a scene and bring scandal to her politician husband they decide to move out. When the smarmy Brandt is murdered in his apartment suspects abound.The Firebird's scenario is standard Chan, Moto, Saint plot line that quickly rises to another level through Dieterle's energetic rhythm of cutting and character idiosyncrasies that flood scenes with rich detail and engrossing composition by way of Ernest Haller's fine camera work and Anton Grot's beautifully lit, lush but unpretentious sets. Ralph Dawson's editing perfectly accents the tempo by seamlessly melding it to the physical action of exits and entrances.Unhampered by a big star Firebird's cast is nearly pitch perfect in type and creating ambiguity. Dieterle is not content to have the actor's stand around with gaping mouths and side glances as the plot unwinds. Whether it's the small roll of the concierge, the governess, valet or tenant Dieterle infuses them with an offbeat individuality that results in both sustaining suspense and delivering some sharp gallows humor. C.Aubrey Smith's police inspector appears noble but employs devious method. His excellency played by Lionel Atwill is both sensitive and a book burner. Her excellency (Veree Teasdale) is also a traditionalist snob but ready willing and able to make the ultimate sacrifice. While the melodrama may get a little thick at times The Firebird is a run of the mill mystery but its execution in terms of form and the comically provocative shots it takes at the class system, theatre people, cops and celebrity make it a diamond (albeit small carat) in the rough.

This movie's title is almost entirely irrelevant. Ricardo Cortez portrays a suave musician in Vienna (memo to a previous IMDb reviewer: Vienna is not in Germany), who lures young maidens to his bachelor flat by offering to play Stravinsky's 'Firebird'. Of course, he's a cad with dozens of notches on his bedpost. Sooner or later, somebody is going to kill this guy. Sure enough, somebody does.This is one of those murder mysteries that features a subjective camera shot from the viewpoint of the murderer, so that the victim looks the murderer right in the eyes but we don't know the murderer's identity. We see Cortez welcoming someone into his digs, and a woman's arm enters the frame ... so we know the killer is a woman. And she's white, too. Other than that, her identity is a mystery.C. Aubrey Smith, more phlegmatic than usual, is the world-weary police inspector who's got to wade through the suspects. The prime suspect is Cortez's neighbour abovestairs, Verree Teasdale, whose lovely young daughter Anita Louise may have been ruined by Cortez. In this movie, Teasdale is married to Lionell Atwill, so she's got enough problems.I'll give this movie some credit. The solution to whodunnit was a genuine surprise to me. Likewise, her motive (yes, the killer IS a woman) was something I didn't expect. Unfortunately, her motive isn't very plausible either. Also, this movie starts out as a whodunnit, but C. Aubrey Smith's sleuth spends much less time trying to solve the murder than he spends pontificating on the morals of the younger generation and such. This movie is based on a play, and it shows: there's lots of talk and very little action.This movie was directed by William Dieterle, a brilliant craftsman who believed in astrology and numerology, and whose artistic decisions were often dictated by the horoscopes cast for him by his wife. She must have put her azimuth in the wrong house this time, because Dieterle's talents -- so amply demonstrated in many other films -- aren't much in evidence here. Several good actors try hard with weak material. I'll rate this movie just 4 out of 10.

It was not only in more recent times that parents asked themselves what was going on with the younger generation. In pre-War Vienna too -- parents forbade their children from listening to Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite." Anita Louise is the daughter to Verree Teasdale and Lionel Atwill. The story concerns who has been tempted by Ricardo Cortez, the actor living in the apartment below? Someone silences him forever -- they might have done so earlier and spiced up a very slow start. Some twists and turns towards the end can't save this otherwise forgettable social commentary masquerading as a mystery.

You can tell that a lot of production money was thrown at THE FIREBIRD but for the life of me I can't tell why it's set in Germany. Ricardo Cortez (the corpse to be) plays a horndog actor with a shady past who lives in a high class apartment building. There's an angry ex-wife, an effeminate personal assistant that's in love with the corpse's Dachsund, and well heeled neighbors with a lovely daughter (Anita Louise) who fear for their reputation. C. Aubrey Smith, the 71-year old impeccable Englishman, plays the police inspector. Remember this is supposed to be set in 1934 Germany (what, no Nazis?). Except for the wiener dog, the apartment manager's pipe, beer swilling policeman and some German shop signs, you'd never know it. Not one stab at an accent between them. A standard whodunnit.