Specter of the Rose

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For the ballet, see Le Spectre de la Rose

Specter of the Rose (1946) is a film written and directed by Ben Hecht, starring Judith Anderson, Ivan Kirov, Viola Essen, Michael Chekhov, and Lionel Stander and with choreography by Tamara Geva.

It is part ballet film and part murder mystery, with a male ballet superstar (Kirov) suspected of murdering his first wife (his former ballet partner) and now possibly threatening his new wife and ballet partner (Essen). Anderson plays an embittered ballet teacher, and Chekhov plays an impressario in a manner which "outdoes Clifton Webb in breaking down the door to The Celluloid Closet" (IMDB). Released by Republic Pictures, the film, also known as Spectre of the Rose, was one of the few films that Hecht directed.

The film has garnered a reputation as both "high camp" (in the Susan Sontag meaning of the word) and as a sincere effort to integrate classical music and ballet into a Hollywood film. Excerpts of the ballet Le Spectre de la Rose, which uses Carl Maria von Weber's "Invitation to the Dance", is featured in the film.