Le chanteur inconnu

My Father took me to this movie when I was a kid. I was extremely impressed, particularly with Tino Rossi's performance of Etude e-major. op. 10, nr3 by Frederic Chopin, called "Tristesse" and famous Waltz No. 7 by Johannes Brahms. It happened to me to see this picture several times and as I was growing older, my enthusiasm faded, mostly due to its melodramatic score. However, music was always the most important part of it and later on I've included Chopin's Etude and Brahm's waltz into my repertoire (I am an amateur pianist). Last but not least: there was also a beautiful tango, played nightly by unknown pianist as a part of the scene on the ship. That tango became also my "hounting melody"for years. Unfortunately, it has remained quite unknown, as I've never heard it played. "Le Chanteur Inconnu" was a movie created for Tino and for all his admirers will remain a cherished piece of memorabilia.

Rossi's directors were most of the time yessir men , whose only purpose was to film a vehicle for their singer/actor ;André Cayatte ,in spite of the spiteful (and totally irrelevant) attacks of the NV was not one of them.His future career would bear this out.

Even under the limitation he's working under ,he manages to make a couple of interesting scenes ; the shadow on the screen , on stage , -particularly the one when the singer sings in front of an empty theater but imagining an audience -the scenes on the boat , the murder attempt .

Given the paucity of Henri Diamant-Berger's screenplay which deals with hackneyed subjects such as amnesia, love triangle,unknown (but adulated ) chanteur , revealing song,it's a wonder Cayatte had been able to make an honest work.

As the precedent user pointed out, the musical side is much better than the average Rossi flick ;Chopin's " tristesse " was, so to speak , "covered" by Serge Gainsbourg whose "inceste de citron " melody was borrowed from the classical musician .