ABSTRACT
In the press book to accompany the Warner Bros. film Deception (Irving Rapper, 1946)—a melodramatic tale of music and musicians—the musical talents of its stars Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains were (unsurprisingly) the subject of some attention. Rains, “who doesn't know a sharp from a flat and admits it,” is said to have “worked out his own musical instruction chart [with the help of conductor Elinar Nilson] for conducting a symphony orchestra”:
“Bars—rests—key—allegro—adagio—smorzando—pianissimo— such nonsense means nothing to me,” Rains says, “but when my chart explained smorzando, say, as —fading away' and allegro, say, as —cheerful,' then I knew what I was doing.” 1
