Interlude

Like many of his best works, filmmaker Douglas Sirk's Interlude is a remake of an earlier Universal soap opera. In this case, Sirk's source material is the 1939 Irene Dunne-Charles Boyer vehicle When Tomorrow Comes. Based on a story by (of all people) James M. Cain, the story concerns the romance between aspiring musician Helen Banning (June Allyson) and famed symphony conductor Tonio Fischer (Rossano Brazzi). Alas, Tonio is married, and his bibulous, vindictive wife (Marianne Cook) isn't about to give him a divorce. Meanwhile, stiff-necked American doctor Morley Dwyer (Keith Andes) waits patiently for his sweetheart Helen to come to her senses and return to his arms. Opulently location-filmed in Austria, Interlude was remade under the same title in 1968.