William Dieterle had a fondness for biopics - he did Juarez at Warners - and managed to persuade Republic Pictures to pony up the cash for this look at the life of Wagner.
Wagner's life was action packed and had plenty of music and drama but this is a fairly ordinary film, with a slack structure, inadequate cast and poor script.
I think the movie tries to pack too much in - a lot happens, three main romances, revolution, musical success and failure, jail... too much, so nothing every really has much impact.
I also think the cast isn't particularly up to it. Alan Badel was effective as crazy John the Baptist in Salome but lacks a certain something as Wagner - warmth, empathy... something. I didn't care what happened to him. Yvonne de Carlo does what she can as his first girl which isn't much with some terrible dialogue; but she's better than Rita Gam and Valentina Cortese in support. Actors play Ludwig II and Liszt but no one makes much impact.
There are some pretty location shots and decent slabs of music but the whole sense I got from this was "meh".
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