The German version of this polyglot musical is marginally more ambitious than the parallel French version and probably the lost English one.It is shows director Litvak already tracking, panning and quick cutting to push up the pace of his work - something which will deliver BLUES IN THE NIGHT more than a decade later in Hollywood.
This film, with Polish tenor Kiepura, here paired with a wants to be cutesy Magda Schneider, instead of wife Marthe Eggert, seems strained as they jam in the Spolianski song, loads of opera extracts, Swiss scenery, dumb comedy and plot about our hero switching places with the traveling con man he meets on the train, while evading his determined lady manageress Lion.
However when Kiepura finds he has to prove his identity in the presence of the local theater company, whose accompanist sits down to the police station portable organ (it's that kind of film), the music, inventive staging and surprise outcome are an unexpected delight and the movie builds enough momentum to carry it through to an Ende title.
This film, with Polish tenor Kiepura, here paired with a wants to be cutesy Magda Schneider, instead of wife Marthe Eggert, seems strained as they jam in the Spolianski song, loads of opera extracts, Swiss scenery, dumb comedy and plot about our hero switching places with the traveling con man he meets on the train, while evading his determined lady manageress Lion.
However when Kiepura finds he has to prove his identity in the presence of the local theater company, whose accompanist sits down to the police station portable organ (it's that kind of film), the music, inventive staging and surprise outcome are an unexpected delight and the movie builds enough momentum to carry it through to an Ende title.
