Specter of the Rose (1946)

Let's be realistic.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

As Good As It Gets

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.

I saw this once at the age of 20. I'm now 80. It's still on my top ten, all-time list. I remember Lionel Stander and "loving her with his eyes". I haven't seen it since. It's a most unusual, beautiful memory. Others on my list are "Separate Tables" (produced by Hecht who wrote "Spectre) and Witness for the Prosecution": Is anybody picking up a pattern? No, because "My Fair Lady" and "Quacker Fortune Has A Cousin Living In The Bronx" are there, too. Until I wrote this I hadn't realized that everybody in all these casts only truly fell in love ONCE. Until I wrote this I hadn't realized that I did, at 20, and still am, at 80. And, until I wrote this line I haven't written the minimum ten.

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!

I agree that it has been shelved and not appreciated. The love scenes are better totally than todays bare all... you were in the room and at the table.. it should be revived. The ballet is made very real, and the people become part of the whole scene, even if you don't care for the ballet or understand it, you will get into this movie. As I said it is an unforgettable movie and should also be shown in cinema classes as an example of great writing and directing.