The Great Waltz (1938 film)

The Great Waltz
Directed by	Julien Duvivier Victor Fleming (uncredited) Josef von Sternberg (uncredited)
Written by	Gottfried Reinhardt (story) Samuel Hoffenstein Walter Reisch Vicki Baum (story, uncredited)
Produced by	Bernard H. Hyman
Starring	Fernand Gravet Luise Rainer Miliza Korjus
Cinematography	Joseph Ruttenberg
Edited by	Tom Held
Music by	Johann Strauss Jr. Arthur Gutmann Dimitri Tiomkin Paul Marquardt
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	November 4, 1938 (1938-11-04)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,260,000[1]
Box office	$2,422,000[1]

The Great Waltz is a 1938 American biographical film based very loosely on the life of Johann Strauss II. It starred Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet (Gravey), and Miliza Korjus. Rainer received top billing at the producer's insistence, but her role is comparatively minor as Strauss' wife, Poldi Vogelhuber. It was the only starring role for Korjus, who was a famous opera soprano and played one in the film.

Joseph Ruttenberg won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Korjus was nominated for Supporting Actress, and Tom Held for Film Editing. The film was popular in Australia, and was distributed largely throughout Sydney and Melbourne for two years after its initial release.

The film has no connection with the 1934 Broadway play The Great Waltz.^[2] Hitchcock's Waltzes from Vienna set the stage for this Julien Duvivier’s Strauss biopic, which maintains the character of the baker's daughter from the original stage musical while focusing on Johann Strauss II's revolutionary inclinations and the creation of his popular operetta, Die Fledermaus.