The Great Waltz (film)

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 producers 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.

The highly fictionalised story sees Schani dismissed from his job in a bank. He puts together a group of unemployed musicians who wangle a performance at Dommayers cafe. The audience is minimal, but when two opera singers, Carla Donner and Fritz Schiller, visit whilst their carriage is being repaired, the music attracts a wider audience.Strauss is caught up in a student protest he and Carla Donner avoid arrest and escape to the Vienna Woods, where he is inspired to create the waltz Tales from the Vienna Woods. ........

Source: Wikipedia