After what she considered a lack lustre beginning to her movie career, Marlene Dietrich returned to the stage where she accepted the role of the wise cracking chorus girl "Rubie" in the Berlin production of "Broadway", the sensational George Abbott play that had already taken the real Broadway by storm. When the play reached Vienna, it's star, Willi Forst, was engaged to make the movie "Cafe Elektric" and at his urging Marlene was given one of the female leads in this strong drama. She made such a favourable impression in her flashy role with both audiences and critics that she was soon being compared to Greta Garbo.
Fast stepping Erni (Dietrich) is the daughter of a construction tycoon who moves in pretty fast circles himself. She makes the acquaintance of Ferdl (Forst), a debonair man of the streets who makes his living from women's generosity (money). At an up market coffee house when he engages Erni in a sensuous "Black Bottom" dance they both want to meet again. The other side of the coin is the "Cafe Elektric" - a low cafe where "the underworld can meet the elite" and it is there Ferdl likes to hang out. Meanwhile Hansi (I don't know anything about beautiful Nina Vanna but she looks like a fetching Bebe Daniels), Ferdl's old flame has made her own conquest - it is Max (Igo Sym) who has been jilted by Erni and has gone to the "Cafe Elektric" to drown his sorrows.
This is the decadent Vienna of the 1920s, nothing is left to the imagination. When Ferdl takes Erni to his room for a late night coffee, breakfast shows Erni putting on her stockings!! Unfortunately Ferdl sees her only as another woman he can sponge off and she is happy to oblige - even to stealing from her father!! She thinks she is sophisticated but compared to the denizens of the "Cafe Elektric" she is a babe in the wood!! Ferdl thinks he and Hansi should team up again but Hansi thinks she has found, with Max, her true love!!
Things come to a head one night at the cafe - Erni has stolen a ring from her father, Fredl has given the ring to Hansi who is then confronted by Erni's father about the ring she is wearing and seeing Ferdl with Erni she immediately points him out as the thief. Oddly enough Fredl and Erni disappear from the movie and the story takes up the struggle of Max and Hansi who marry but find only hardship and poverty due to Max's inability to find employment. The last reel is missing but there is a general wrap up of the story to show that it ends on a far more hopeful note than the depressing end of the last reel.
"Cafe Elektric" also introduced Gustav Ucicky as an exciting new director, unfortunately with blatant propaganda movies like "Morgenrot" (1933) and "Fluchtlinge" (1933) he quickly became a top director for Hitler and the National Socialist Party. Even more chilling was the life led by Igo Sym who, although he lived in Poland, collaborated with the Gestapo and betrayed many celebrities who were trying to live incognito. He was eventually caught by the Polish underground and executed in his apartment in 1941.
Fast stepping Erni (Dietrich) is the daughter of a construction tycoon who moves in pretty fast circles himself. She makes the acquaintance of Ferdl (Forst), a debonair man of the streets who makes his living from women's generosity (money). At an up market coffee house when he engages Erni in a sensuous "Black Bottom" dance they both want to meet again. The other side of the coin is the "Cafe Elektric" - a low cafe where "the underworld can meet the elite" and it is there Ferdl likes to hang out. Meanwhile Hansi (I don't know anything about beautiful Nina Vanna but she looks like a fetching Bebe Daniels), Ferdl's old flame has made her own conquest - it is Max (Igo Sym) who has been jilted by Erni and has gone to the "Cafe Elektric" to drown his sorrows.
This is the decadent Vienna of the 1920s, nothing is left to the imagination. When Ferdl takes Erni to his room for a late night coffee, breakfast shows Erni putting on her stockings!! Unfortunately Ferdl sees her only as another woman he can sponge off and she is happy to oblige - even to stealing from her father!! She thinks she is sophisticated but compared to the denizens of the "Cafe Elektric" she is a babe in the wood!! Ferdl thinks he and Hansi should team up again but Hansi thinks she has found, with Max, her true love!!
Things come to a head one night at the cafe - Erni has stolen a ring from her father, Fredl has given the ring to Hansi who is then confronted by Erni's father about the ring she is wearing and seeing Ferdl with Erni she immediately points him out as the thief. Oddly enough Fredl and Erni disappear from the movie and the story takes up the struggle of Max and Hansi who marry but find only hardship and poverty due to Max's inability to find employment. The last reel is missing but there is a general wrap up of the story to show that it ends on a far more hopeful note than the depressing end of the last reel.
"Cafe Elektric" also introduced Gustav Ucicky as an exciting new director, unfortunately with blatant propaganda movies like "Morgenrot" (1933) and "Fluchtlinge" (1933) he quickly became a top director for Hitler and the National Socialist Party. Even more chilling was the life led by Igo Sym who, although he lived in Poland, collaborated with the Gestapo and betrayed many celebrities who were trying to live incognito. He was eventually caught by the Polish underground and executed in his apartment in 1941.