Movie #157 ........................."Song to Remember"

Movie #157 "Song to Remember" is an old movie I watched on the plane today on the way to Arizona because I had teevoed a copy of it from TCM. I had never heard of it, but I was interested because it was supposed to be about the love affair between Frederic Chopin and George Sand (a female writer, very rebellious, strong female). One of my favorite movies I have ever seen is on the same topic, and it's entitled "Impromptu." So it was interesting to see how the relationship was handled here. Cornel Wilde played the sickly, very naive, passionate genius Chopin(Hugh Grant, I think in the other one) while Merle Oberon played George Sand in this one ( Judy Davis in "Impromptu"). I want to resee "Impromptu in the near future, but from what I remember it was a lovely love story, with the conflict centered around Frederic's health. This one was centered around the Polish liberation and a teacher (played by the ever talented Paul Muni)who had worked with Frederic since he was 5 years old and who also believed in the cause. According to this film, Frederic was greatly upset with the way the Poles were being treated, and he travelled to Paris with his teacher so he could make money and send it back to the cause. Once there, George Sand takes Chopin on as her protege and she takes him to Majorca so they can both do their thing as far as the arts. Since this is an old movie, we only imagine they are sleeping together --- that part is never mentioned. Anyway, he leaves his beloved teacher behind, for several years. He gets sick there but continues to write great music. As long as he creates, Ms Sand thinks that is good enough ----- she seems more of the philosophy that you do art for yourself, and she thinks if he goes on tour, he'd make money, but he doesn't need to, and she doesn't think his health is good enough to withstand the stress of the tour. Meanwhile, his teacher and people back home think that he should do a tour and take the money and give it to the cause. You can guess the end. Because I don't remember this teacher or the cause from the beloved movie "Impromptu," I plan to see it again soon. I would rate this movie a #3. It was interesting and had LOTS and LOTS of Chopin music. But it seemed predictable and simplistic in its approach. But I had never seen Paul Muni in this type of performance, so that was a special bonus here.