Reich mir die Hand, mein Leben

Picked up in Salzburg, the German version of this film, with English subtitles, is extremely watchable but zips along at a fair pace - it feels as if it was edited extremely tightly and in fact jumps abruptly to cuts at times.

Mozart is played here by Oskar Werner, who eventually achieved some success in Hollywood. The other cast members aren't well known to me, but there's a decent Constanze here, plus her sister Lusia, and Mozart's muse from 'The Magic Flute', Anna.

Even in an old and damaged print, the colours are lovely, the music is sumptuous, and the centre of Vienna is easily recognisable (not sure if it was filmed here or reconstructed, but it certainly looks authentic, especially in and around the cathedral).

The Mozart presented here isn't the crude and vulgar child-man of 'Amadeus', but instead a slightly silly-ass who likes to flirt and gets easily enthralled by things which lift his music. It's fairly effective - but the story presented here doesn't feel particularly close to the truth.

Not an essential viewing, but not bad for fans of the composer and/or Austria.