Early German comedy on gender confusion

Horst_In_Translation

"Viktor und Viktoria" or "Viktor and Viktoria" is a German black-and-white sound movie from 1933, so this one will soon have its 85th anniversary. The writer and director is Reinhold Schünzel, a really successful and prolific actor as well, and it is probably his most known work behind the camera. Same can probably be said for lead actress Renate Müller and this may also have to do with her very early death. Hermann Thimig, who plays the male title character, appeared in a couple other pretty well-known films and lived until into his 90s. The rest of the cast I cannot say I am familiar with. Nonetheless, this film (or this story) was successful enough for this film to be remade on many occasions in all kinds of countries, including a Hollywood movie that was even a big player at the Academy Awards many decades later.

But lets take a look at this one here. I cannot say I am too impressed unfortunately. I found it a very mediocre movie overall, in terms of music, acting and, most of all, the plot. The story was maybe good enough for 40 minutes, but not for almost 1 hour and 40 minutes. Apart from that, the cross-dressing humor becomes repetitive at some point I have to say because there is nothing else to it, they just rely on the costumes and make-up to be enough and it is not, especially not in the days when we can't see color, which is of course a factual description and you cannot blame anybody for it. I can see however how the Nazis probably have not liked this film a lot as they certainly did not see any fun or comedy in the issue of men dressing as women or the other way around. In my opinion, it is simply not enough for me to like a film just because the Nazis hated it and I believe that's the approach many people are giving it. I am also looking for interesting character development and real depth when it comes to the story and character backgrounds. So yeah, all in all, this film is not a failure, but it is also quite a bit away in terms of quality from a level where I would recommend the watch. I give it a thumbs-down and suggest you watch something else instead, maybe unless you really love another version of it and are curious about this 1930s approach to the subject.

score 4/10

Horst_In_Translation 8 December 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3594903/