7/10
Make forget the war
7 July 2010
This movie is a very good example of the German film industry during the Hitler regime. It was published in 1943, i.e. during a period when Germany was at war with all his neighbor countries. Austria was non existent due to the "Anschluss" on March 13, 1938. The German population was more or less tired of the war which was in its 4th year.

The Nazi propaganda had occupied all media, i.e. there was no longer a free press, radio broadcast and no independent film industry. Joseph Goebbels ruled the public opinion: It was strictly forbidden to read foreign publications, listen to foreign radio stations, watch foreign movies (whereby Goebbels was a great fan of Hollywood films which he watched in his private premises).

All the above must be known if you judge "Schwarz auf Weiss (Black on White)". It is a simple comedy which makes you laugh and forget your daily sorrows - exactly what was intended by the Nazi regime. The movie lives from the matchless Austrian actor Hans Moser who dominates the whole story. The sad part in Mosers life was that he was married to a Jewish wife who had to escape in 1939 to Hungary in order not to end in a concentration camp. Only due to his immense popularity in the "Reich" the Nazis tolerated him and he could play unpolitical parts in movies like "Schwarz auf Weiss" and was not put in jail according to the "Nuremberg Laws" because he refused to be divorced from his wife.

After WW II Moser lived again together with his spouse in Vienna.

For the incomparable talent of Moser I give this film 7 out of 10 points.
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