Liliom **** (1934, Charles Boyer, Madeleine Ozeray, Robert Arnoux) – Classic Movie Review 3423

Ferenc Molnár’s play is beautifully remade in France by Fritz Lang, only four years after Frank Borzage’s 1930 film with Charles Farrell and Rose Hobart.

The young Charles Boyer is ideal as the Budapest carnival barker, Liliom, who goes to heaven after being killed in a rumpus and returns to check up on his wife, Julie (Madeleine Ozeray) and child.

The play eventually became the stage show and movie Carousel (1956) in its most popular incarnations. It was Lang’s sole French movie, on his way to America, after he escaped from Hitler’s Germany.

Lang considered it his best film and Boyer thought Liliom his favourite role. The Catholic Church denounced it, believing its view of Heaven too frivolous. The play originally starred Hans Albers as Liliom but declined the film.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3423

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