The Emperor Waltz (1948)
A brash American gramophone salesman travels to turn-of-the-century Austria and tries to win Emperor Franz Joseph’s endorsement for his invention. Along the way, he becomes involved with a countess and her dog, leading to romantic complications and comic misunderstandings.
Narrative Score
Full Plot & Ending Explained
Intro
The film opens in turn-of-the-century Vienna, where American traveling salesman Virgil Smith arrives with his dog Buttons, hoping to sell a gramophone to Emperor Franz Joseph I so the emperor’s endorsement will help the invention spread through Austria.
Turning Point 1
At the palace, Virgil is treated as a suspicious outsider; the guards think the box carrying his gramophone may hide a bomb, and his attempt to reach the emperor is interrupted before he can make the sale.
Turning Point 2
At the same palace visit, Virgil encounters Countess Johanna Augusta Franziska von Stolzenberg-Stolzenberg and her father, Baron Holenia, who are there for a very different reason: the emperor wants their poodle Scheherazade to mate with his poodle, turning the royal household’s concern into a comic canine courtship.
Turning Point 3
Outside the palace, Buttons and Scheherazade immediately fight, with Scheherazade biting Buttons; Virgil is outraged by the aristocratic family’s attitude, and the clash becomes a sharp argument about class between the American salesman and the countess.
Turning Point 4
Scheherazade then develops a nervous breakdown and becomes fearful of other dogs, prompting veterinarian Dr. Zwieback to recommend that she be forced to confront Buttons again as a kind of Freudian cure.
Turning Point 5
Under this plan, Virgil and Johanna are brought back together through repeated meetings for the dogs’ sake, and during these encounters romantic feelings grow between them while Buttons and Scheherazade also grow attached to each other.
Turning Point 6
As Virgil and Johanna’s relationship deepens, the dogs’ secret mating mirrors the human romance and complicates the courtly expectations surrounding the emperor’s poodle arrangement.
Turning Point 7
Eventually Virgil asks Emperor Franz Joseph for permission to marry Johanna, but the emperor warns him that their class difference would make the marriage impossible and offers him a business opportunity instead.
Ending
Johanna later realizes what Virgil has done for her and chooses him anyway, telling the emperor that she would rather take one chance in a million at happiness with Virgil than no chance at all with someone she cannot love; the emperor relents and allows them to marry.
Cross-checked against Wikipedia and other public film references. View on Letterboxd ↗ The Narrative Score above is an experimental 5-axis rating, not a critic score.