Customer Reviews

Magic Bow [VHS]

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This is a surprisingly engaging movie with all the pageantry one would expect from a big-budget period costume drama. Granger, not yet discovered by Hollywood, excels as famous violinist Paganini, equal parts ambition and impetuousness. We had, quite frankly, expected to be bored, but we were, on the contrary, thoroughly engrossed and entertained. Granger's heavily rouged lips, apparently the style in 1946 England, are unfortunate, a constant and unintentional draw for the viewer's eye. (We won't even touch on the astonishingly hilarious wig he wears for the first half of the movie.) But the magnificently masculine voice is undeniable, and he already carries himself like the swashbuckler Hollywood would eventually make of him. He reportedly studied the violin in preparation for this role, and the close-ups of him playing his impassioned music are impressive. The acting is, by and large, commendable. Our only real complaint is the odd tendency of the background musical score to swell over the dialogue, even during critical scenes, as though we must be continually reminded that this is, after all, a film about music. A must-see for the die-hard Granger fan, for the student of Paganini, or for anyone who enjoys a solid old-fashioned story told in glorious black-and-white.