A woman playing a man playing a woman

bernie-50

Viktor Hempel (Hermann Thimig) has played many parts; one of which is of a woman. He crosses paths with Susanne Lohr (Renate Müller) at an opportune time when he has a cold and can not go on. She goes on in his place and when she reveals herself to be a man by taking a wig off, is an instant success. The story gets complex when she falls for a man and can not tell him that she is a woman. Little does she know he found out. So he has fun leading her on. Will she ever find out that he knows?

The movie shows many interesting things about the Weimar era such as an automat. The singing is from the 30's so they have that warble that you heard in Disney's Snow White. And the movie has a lot of slapstick filler. Many times Viktor is unnecessarily a dufus. I have a sparse German vocabulary and am lucky most of the characters spoke slowly or at least used basic statements. There is also a smidgen of English including a song about Spain. The film would have been easer to follow if Deutsch sub-titles were available.

The DVD I Watched is region 2 from Black Hill Pictures GmbH. You may need a multiregional player or do a little ripping and converting to play.

score 10/10

bernie-50 24 December 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0988091/