Masterpiece directed by Willi Forst in poetic romanticism genre. The film is as romantic and sentimental as Schubert’s music, making it truthful in symbolism rather than fact.

I also preset here for comparison a primitive, shtetl American 1941 “remake” – a travesty known as The Melody Master aka New Wine aka Great Awakening courtesy of Alexander Korda and William Sekely. The talented German director Reinhold Schunzel must have been in a dire need of money to accept this task. His career would be way more successful had he stayed in Germany. Same is true for Albert Basserman, who portrays Beethoven as a complete buffoon.