rapturous musical

kidboots

This film is a rapturous musical - with lilting melodies, often sung in rhyming couplets - it is a reminder of how free spirited the German musical was before the Third Reich.

I thought the "military" song when they sang that "nothing will stand in their way", "they will triumph and go higher and higher" and "1933 will be our year" was a thinly veiled tribute to Hitler's new regime. The Manager even jokes that "I'm as safe as the Weimer Republic".

Renate Muller was Germany's brightest star of the early thirties. She went to England in 1931 to star in "Sunshine Susie" - an English version of her first musical success "Privatsekretarin" (1929). This was her biggest success - in it she played Susanne Lohr, an actress who is hoping for a part that will give her a chance to show off her talents. After being rejected from yet another audition (for being too young -"come back in ten years") she meets up with Viktor Hempel (Herman Thimig) who to make ends meet, moonlights as Viktoria, a female impersonator. When Susi takes his place one night, they become an international success. They go to London (that strangely enough is full of Germans)and they meet the (very, very ) handsome Anton Walbrook and his friends. The scenes where Anton show Susi (still masquerading as Viktor) the town - including going to the barbers for his first shave and having a drink in a very rough tavern are the film's highlights.

score 8/10

kidboots 15 October 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1746589/