I've Always Loved You
As its fortunes grew in the mid-1940s, Republic Pictures occasionally strayed from its usual manifest of westerns and serials, hoping to produce something of class. Filmed on a lavish budget in glorious Technicolor, Republic's I've Always Loved You stars Philip Dorn as a tyrannical symphony conductor and Catherine McLeod as his gifted young pianist protegee.
In his own way, Dorn loves McLeod, but it is he who destroys her career by browbeating her mercilessly during her Carnegie Hall debut. Effortlessly stealing the film from the leads are Maria Ouspenskaya as one Mme. Goronoff and comedy relief Fritz Feld.
The plot of I've Always Loved You is rather derivative of several like-vintage British concerto films, but the classical music passages, performed by piano virtuoso Artur Rubinstein, are well worth the admission price.
