Humoresque

Humoresque (1947) is a Hollywood melodrama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Jean Negulesco and starring Joan Crawford and John Garfield. The film follows Paul Boray, a gifted violinist from a working-class background who fights his way to the concert stage — and into a relationship that may cost him more than he bargained for.

Helen Wright (Crawford) is a wealthy socialite who takes Paul under her wing and, before long, becomes something harder to categorize than a patron. Paul is driven by music above all else — a fact Helen understands intellectually and struggles with personally. Oscar Levant plays Paul's sardonic pianist friend, the film's most honest voice and its best running joke.

Negulesco built the picture around some of the most striking classical recordings ever put on a Hollywood soundtrack. It is a study of a man consumed by his own gift, and Crawford holds her own against it. Stream Humoresque (1947) in full online on iFILM.