There is no need to tell anyone that Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" is a masterpiece. All that remains, then, in discussing the movie, is the quality of the adaptation and the performance of the music. The music, played by the Berlin State Orchestra, is lacking in vivacity and occasionally in clarity, but it is passable. The singing, especially that of Erna Berger and Eugen Fuchs, is excellent.

But as a motion picture "The Marriage of Figaro" is not successful. Since the actors who play Count Almaviva and his retinue are not singing the roles, we should have the right to expect good acting and pleasing countenances. Instead, they posture and grimace with little sense of what is happening. Especially annoying is Angela Hauff's habit, in the role of Susanna, of smiling in all the wrong places. Perhaps she was smiling at the efforts of director George Wildhagen.

The decor of the film is authentically 18th century. It is certainly "correct," but it is not tastefully treated, or effectively photographed. Since the acting, photography, and decor are undistinguished, all that remains of "The Marriage of Figaro" is some good singing and orchestral music, and that alone doesn't make a particularly strong motion picture.

On the same bill is "Die Fledermaus," a 1948 version of Strauss' opera. In it most of the virtues and vices of "The Marriage of Figaro" are reversed. There is little of Strauss' music and a lot of good acting. The orange-tinted film is the most unusual part of the movie. If it's Germany's answer to glorious Technicolor, Hollywood has nothing to worry about in that department.