Remade as First a Girl with Jessie Matthews

duganek

Many are aware that Viktor and Viktoria was remade in the U.S. as Victor/Victoria, but an English-language remake was made the following year in the U.S. starring Jessie Matthews and Barry McKay. The film follows the German script closely including the scene with the geese, but allows McKay to be in on the impersonation much earlier. Intriguingly, neither the German nor UK version contain a single hint of homosexuality -- female and male impersonation were simply accepted theatrical forms. No nudge-nudge wink-wink. One of the more poignant and droll scenes in the German film is when the ambitious thespians descend several flights of stairs in a seedy theatrical booking building, singing to a joyous martial melody that they will climb ever higher and higher-- as they descend and descend.

score /10

duganek 15 July 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0011652/