I had heard about this film for years and wanted to see it, but apparently there are rights issues which have kept this from the general public. Today I finally saw the film in what looks to be a bootleg copy. The story is a charming love story that spans the generations. Vivienne Segal is lovely and sings very well. Alexander Gray is good as well. The Technicolor is good, although I suppose the restored print, which languishes in a vault, would be preferable. Looking at Wikipedia, it seems that Warner Bros. holds the rights to this property. I'm not sure I believe that though, as they would have no reason that makes any sense to withhold this from their ever-growing Warner Archive collection of early sound movies. More probably, the reason stems from the fact that Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II are the composers, and perhaps one or both of the family estates is causing a holdup on any DVD release. I think it's time some of these "museum pieces" were made available to film buffs like me, who are sick and tired of hearing about how a film's restored version is molding away in some archive, unable to be seen by any but a handful of privileged people who can afford to travel to some "event", where an untouchable film may be seen by but a fraction of those who wish to see it.
Review of Viennese Nights
