User Reviews

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.

Many know Blake Edwards's 1982 film and the 1995 Broadway production, but few have seen the original 1933 film until now, thanks to this new release by Kino Lorber.

A young woman (Renate Müller) can't find work as a singer, so she works with a down on his luck actor to revise her act and become a man on stage. Now, Victoria has become Victor, but her life has become even more complicated.

Director Reinhold Schünzel also shot a French-language version of the film as George and Georgette starring Meg Lemonnier and a French cast. Victor Saville directed an English version, First a Girl, in 1935 and there was a West German remake by Karl Anton in 1957. Before the aforementioned Edwards film, there was also the Argentina remake My Girlfriend, the Transvestite.

I think this is a fantastically fun film, particularly as source material for "First a girl" and "Victor/Victoria" later. I disagree with another reviewer who said that the UK version doesn't have any hint of homosexuality in it. One of the characters says to Jessie Mathews (Victor (as a man)) "At first you didn't strike me as the type of man who'd be interested in that sort of thing (meaning marriage) you know, in girls." to which Jessie (Victor) replies "Oh! But I am!" The premise of all three of these films is quite complex and truly funny. A (real) woman falls on hard times and meets a (some-films gay, some-films not) man who shows her how to "work the circuit" and get a meal or two for free, etc.

Then, the man, who is by day a gentleman an by night a female impersonator, gets sick and his new friend has to go on in his stead. She does a smashing job, and they are quickly offered a contract they cannot refuse -- now all they have to do is convince the world that out of that dress and that wig, SHE'S really a HE... and calamity ensues.

I hope you enjoy! -Rob

The first of many versions of an oft done story has elements familiar to the smash hot 1982 movie, done quite stylishly by director Reinhold Schünzel with Renate Muller quite charming as Suzanne and her on stage personal Victoria, utilizing this as the male version of her character offstage while out socially. Victor (played by Hermann Thimig) is the very evcentric, straight best pal whose idea it is to perpetuate scheme to fool everyone, with Anton Walbrook as the gangster who becomes certain that there is a scam going on. Hilde Hildebrand and Friedel Pisetta play two different women whose characters were asked into one for the 1935 remake "First a Woman", and the Oscar nominated performance of Lesley Ann Warren in the 1982 version. Muller truly gives her all, hysterically funny, and it's obvious where Julie Andrews got a lot of her mannerisms which she essayed to perfection.

While most of the dialogue is in German, there are some moments when they break into English, and that is one of the few points in the film where the dialogue is not sung. The musical numbers are quite lavish, almost Busby Berkeley like in nature, and the film seems to be greatly influenced by Ernest Lubitch's "Love Me Tonight" made the previous year. The kaleidoscopic photography in the dance numbers really adds a period feel, and there are also a couple of moments that are more pantomimed than spoken, as if they were going for a bit of a ballet, particularly when Muller is having a makeover. The character played by Thimig is quite different than Robert Preston in the later version, with different elements addes to the story, and that really makes no difference in the way this version is developed, because it is fascinating nonetheless even though it is a bit dated in certain aspects. Definitely worth a look from a historical aspect, showing the pre-Nazi Germany film era at its most creative.

"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.