The 1935 Hungarian song "Gloomy Sunday" is enshrouded in more controversy and mystique than perhaps any song in history--a seductive, melancholy melody which, for reasons still not fully understood, became the theme of choice for countless suicides of the day. One after another, disenchanted souls cranked up the tune on their phonographs and checked themselves out of reality, thus guaranteeing "Gloomy Sunday" a place of infamy in the annals of 20th-century music.

Those hoping for a faithful recounting of such events will not find one in the film "Gloomy Sunday," a 1999 German-Hungarian co-production only now getting released in the U.S. The source material is actually a popular novel, written by Nick Barkow, which uses only the most cursory factual details to forge a fictitious "Jules and Jim"-style love triangle involving Jewish-Hungarian restaurateur Laszlo Szabo (Joachim Krol), his lady love Ilona (Erika Marozsan) and the brooding young pianist Andras Aradi (Stefano Dionisi) who composes the melody while working at Szabo's restaurant. It's a tenuous arrangement, but the success of the song enables them to work past the awkwardness. By 1944, however, the song takes on a more overtly metaphorical significance -- as the Nazi death machine rolls into Hungary and brings back an old friend in a new uniform (Ben Becker), the trio is forced to confront the social and political realities from which they falsely believed their love would provide shelter.

Ill-fated, melodramatic love triangles set against a backdrop of war are nothing new for the movies--films as far-reaching as "Wings," "Dr. Zhivago" and "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" being key examples. Though "Gloomy Sunday" is far too forthright in its pretensions to earn a place among the classics, its old-fashioned melodramatic credentials are still hard to resist. The ever-present heavy hand of fate, so crucial to the Hollywood melodramas of the '40s and '50s, reappears here having scarcely lost a beat. Unpretentious direction from co-writer/director Rolf Schubel and affecting performances from the leads, particularly the deliriously beautiful Marozsan, help bolster the picture's merits while diverting attention away from such shortcomings as the poor dubbing of Dionisi (which audiences reading subtitles aren't likely to even notice). Even the risk of overusing the song, which is played repeatedly within the film and as part of the underscore, is skillfully mitigated, guaranteed to induce involuntary humming even among the film's detractors. Starring Erika Marozsan, Joachim Krol, Stefano Dionisi and Ben Becker. Directed by Rolf Schubel. Written by Ruth Roma and Rolf Schubel. Produced by Richard Schops. A Menemsha release. Period drama. German-language; subtitled. Unrated. Running time: 114 min