Technically there is much to complain about in this film, which unfortunately mobilized all prejudices against it, which is a pity, because it's a great story, the actors are all superb, especially the old ones (Edward G. Robinson, Robert Morley and Harry Secombe as a perfectly convincing Björnstjerne Björnson),while Frank Poretta is number one as Rikard Nordraak, and it's really his story and tragedy that is being told. The music is all Grieg, his piano concerto dominates the whole film in various arrangements in both songs and ballets, and the dance sequences are all gorgeous, often with children, always in local costumes. It is very Norwegian in style, almost flippant in outbursts of great energetic humor and towering enthusiasm, which at times is difficult to follow in its high spirits and acrobatics, but above all the settings make this film something to return to at times with renewed pleasure, in spite of the overwhelming tragedy it recounts, - which, it should be pointed out, is a true story. I have seen it now 3 times found it better every time.

As a lifelong fan of classical music and who has liked/loved a fair share of musical/composer biopics ('Amadeus' being one of my all time favourite films),there was a lot of interest seeing this biopic about Edvard Grieg, Norway's greatest composer.

It does pain me to say it, but 'Song of Norway' was a huge disappointment. Others have explained very well the numerous big flaws it has, and there is not much to add. As a biographical drama, it is a disaster, one of the worst to exist outside of a few good things. As a film on its own, 'Song of Norway' is also not much better. This is coming from somebody who really wanted to like it and was prepared to go against the grain/general consensus, which has happened before though critics and I are also often in agreement.

There are good points about 'Song of Norway'. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous and matched by some lovingly rendered cinematography. Grieg's music, while deserving better treatment being deserving of larger, longer extracts and a less 'The Sound of Music'-esque, except far more cloyingly cutesy (actually love 'The Sound of Music' as a film but that approach sounded wrong here),treatment, is a sheer wonderful delight.

Florence Henderson gives the best, and only, good performance. She actually looks engaged and the only person to make a lot of her role.

'Song of Norway' has so much wrong with it, however, including the single stiffest, dullest and severely erratically characterised (both over and under) performance of any composer on film, there may have been composers with more colourful personalities and more interesting personal lives, like Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner and Schumann (four of whom had biopics that did them justice),but Grieg was not this uninteresting.

Don't expect Robert Morley, Oskar Homolka or Edward G. Robinson to save things, they are given nothing to do and only Robinson makes effort to bring dignity despite being completely wasted. And how can you have interesting real life figures like Liszt, Andersen and Ibsen and do so little with them? It is the storytelling and direction where 'Song of Norway' most falls down. The film is far too long, easily could have done with being 45 minutes shorter, and goes along at a snail's pace with so much flimsy drama and static staging of musical scenes which makes the film often deadly dull. The direction is amateurishly static.

Editing should have been tighter and the dialogue is horrendously stilted.

All in all, a deadly dull mess aside from good production values, great music and one good performance. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The team of Robert Wright and Chet Forrest adapted the music of Edvard Grieg into a biographical operetta as they later did for Alexander Borodin in Kismet and it ran on Broadway for 860 performances in 1944-46.

In many ways the film shows imagination. The location cinematography in Norway and Denmark is spectacular and obviously influenced by the Sound Of Music as are the musical numbers. There's an animated sequence involving In The Hall Of The Mountain King that is most imaginative.

But the pace is that of escargot. The actors get no real direction at all. Some movie scene stealers like Edward G. Robinson and Oscar Homolka and Robert Morley have their own bag of tricks which are used.

The plot is simply promising composer Edvard Grieg is forbidden marriage to Christina Schollin by her rich dad Robert Morley. He marries Florence Henderson who sings well and probably was hoping she'd break into the big screen stardom after years on the Brady Bunch. The bad reviews Song Of Norway got killed any chance of that. Schollin who never married becomes Grieg's patron instead.

Toralv Maurstad is a big name in Norwegian cinema. But this also killed his career for international stardom.

But if you like the music of Grieg, Song of Norway is for you.