Song of Norway (film)

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This article is about the 1970 film. For the 1944 stage musical, see Song of Norway.

Song of Norway
Directed by	Andrew L. Stone
Written by	Andrew L. Stone
Starring	Toralv Maurstad Florence Henderson
Music by	Robert Wright George Forrest, based on the music of Edvard Grieg
Cinematography	Davis Boulton
Editing by	Virginia Stone
Distributed by	ABC Pictures
Release date(s)	1970
Running time	138 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Song of Norway is a 1970 film adaptation of the successful stage musical of the same name, directed by Andrew L. Stone.

Like the play from which it derived, the film tells of the early struggles of composer Edvard Grieg and his attempts to develop an authentic Norwegian national music. It stars Toralv Maurstad as Grieg and features an international cast including Florence Henderson, Robert Morley, Harry Secombe, Oscar Homolka, Edward G. Robinson and Frank Porretta (as Rikard Nordraak). Filmed in Super Panavision 70 and presented in Cinerama in some countries, it was a clear attempt to capitalise on the success of The Sound of Music but suffered from a weak script, poor editing (by the director's wife), unappealing animation and an ill-advised stunt sequence (directed by Yakima Canutt) which appeared to portray Grieg as an action hero.

[edit] Critical Response

Song of Norway was one of a series of commercial disasters which followed the success of My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music, which caused studios to imagine a full-scale musical film revival was in the cards. Similar box-office disasters included Darling Lili, Mame, Paint Your Wagon and Lost Horizon.^[1]

Critics were virtually unanimously negative on its release, noting especially the aping of The Sound of Music and its generally poor production quality despite obvious expense. Pauline Kael said: "The movie is of an unbelievable badness; it brings back clichés you didn’t know you knew - they’re practically from the unconscious of moviegoers".^[2] Critics' views were echoed by cast members. Harry Secombe was to note later that it was the kind of film "you could take the kids to see... and leave them there."^[3]