User Reviews

"Kora Terry" is a German 100-minute movie from 1940, sot his one is already over 75 years old. The director is Georg Jacoby and quite a few people worked on the script here. The unanimous star of this movie is Marika Rökk in one of her more known career performances. People with an interest in German cinema from that time may also recognize Quadflieg and Leibelt, maybe even some others. The movie was made during the days of Nazi Germany, but compared to some other stuff from that time, it is not a propaganda movie at all. It's really more of a Rökk showcase and here we see an early example of an actor (actress) playing identical twin characters. The one in the title is just one of them and these characters could not be any more different. One is entirely bad, the other entirely good it seems. And these characterization are also what the film entirely relies on. It develops in fields as crime, death, police investigation, so it is definitely much more on the serious side. Add certain mix-up elements and you basically have the entire thing. I personally did not enjoy the watch too much. I am not sure Rökk's performance here justifies her star level, but maybe it is just the way her characters were written that was not too much on the inspired side. Always a bit of a shame to see so many writers and then such a weak movie overall. The parenthood component is also not making even half as much a difference and reaching half the memorability value it could have. I give this black-and-white film a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

Teutonic film star Marika Rokk and her Third Reich movie musicals are long overdue for re-assessment. Her escapist fantasies were an alternate universe of what life was like in World War II Nazi Germany. Everything seems so normal in this "reel world" it's almost impossible to believe that in the real world a Fascist nightmare was unfolding. Hit songs, opulent production numbers and romantic plots made these extravaganzas almost indistinguishable from Hollywood's wartime out-put.

KORA TERRY can best be described as a "musical melodrama" that starts out as a backstage romantic triangle and quickly veers into an espionage thriller that plays out across three continents. The "Terry Sisters" are the prestigious Odeon Theatre's main attraction. The good twin Mara loves the handsome young musical director, Varany, while worldly bad twin Kora uses stage-door Johnnies to climb the ladder of success. Mara's the one who visits Kora's young daughter in boarding school when Kora finds the child a hindrance to her love-life. During a lavish musical number where Kora balances Mara on her head, Kora loses her balance and Mara comes crashing down, breaking her ankle. This injury lays Mara up and Kora uses the opportunity to seduce Varany in a scene reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich in THE BLUE ANGEL. In her lace teddy, silk stockings and satin bathrobe, Kora smokes, drinks and lounges on a bed while Varany can hardly keep his eyes on the piano as they ostensibly practice a new song he's composing. Unbeknownst to them, Mara and her faithful friend "Tobs", the costumer for the show, overhear them in the next room. Varany is only one of Kora's many conquests, however. She entertains and romances a fast crowd of wealthy socialites, playboys and dignitaries, but when she steals valuable military secrets from one of them things heat up fast. The action switches to Africa where Kora and Mara take singing engagements. Kora encounters Vopescu, the head of an international spy ring, in a casino and agrees to sell the secrets to him. To prevent her sister from betraying her country, Mara shoots her but Kora dies as a result of falling down a flight of stairs. "Tobs" convinces Mara to take on the identity of Kora while he takes the blame for "Mara's" death. In New York Kora becomes a Broadway sensation, but things boil over when all the pieces of the "Terry Sister's" life converge at once. The couple Kora stole the military plans from recognize her while Vopescu blackmails her. Varany, now a famous violinist playing New York thanks to the "Terry Sister's" agent, Herr Moller, realizes "Kora" is actually Mara. When "Kora" is arrested, "Tobs", now released from prison, proves her true identity by showing X-ray plates of Mara's broken ankle. With her own name up in lights instead of "Kora's", Mara finds true happiness again with Varany as "Tobs" looks on approvingly.

KORA TERRY is probably the most outlandish of all Marika Rokk films. This film needs no subtitles or dubbed dialog to figure out it's lurid pulp plot. This may be one of the first of the "good twin/bad twin" opuses that Hollywood became enamored of in the 1940's. Maria Montez in COBRA WOMAN (44), Olivia De Havilland in THE DARK MIRROR and Bette Davis' A STOLEN LIFE (both 46) use the same theme of demure "good twin" killing the selfish "bad one" and impersonating her for the duration of the film until final denouement. Delores Del Rio explored the same territory in the Mexican film LA OTRA in 1946 which was later remade in Hollywood as DEAD RINGER (64) with Bette Davis again. Masterfully directed by Marika's husband and mentor, Georg Jacoby, KORA TERRY holds the attention from start to finish as amazing eye (and ear) candy. The many talents of Marika Rokk are continuously on display and it's her film all the way. Singing, dancing and acrobatics are cleverly entwined with the film's plot. The "good twin" is as blonde as the "bad" one is dark, and the chiaroscuro cinematography of shadows and sunlight would presage Hollywood's film noir by a few years. The singing styles of the two sisters are as different as their personalities which gives Rokk a wide range in versatility. Singing and dancing together and separately, Rokk warbles everything from pop tunes to love ballads and the film ends with a rousing Bavarian folk dance that seems almost impossible for a Broadway stage to contain. Marika shot the "good" twin's scenes in the day and the "bad" twin's in the late afternoon to get her to be able to differentiate their personalities. The scenes with the two sisters work thanks to Rokk's "method" acting, clever trick photography and an amazing look-alike double who's mostly seen in profile. The film's musical composer, Paul Kreuder, related how the girl was found in a concentration camp and won her freedom after the film's completion. Marika Rokk, gorgeously costumed in outré European 40's fashions, is ravishingly beautiful and has three knock-out production numbers. The eye-popping "Cobra Dance" Kora does in an Algerian nightclub/casino is the highlight and must be seen to be believed. Thrillingly provocative, her exotic belly dance goes further than any Hollywood product at that time. An Arabian Nights fantasy comes to life as fakirs play the drums that make Marika rise from a smoking stone altar like a cobra from it's basket. Marika writhes sensuously in veils and lame' bikini (complete with jewel in navel) as she coils a boa constrictor around her neck, then undulates while holding the snake to her face as it flicks it's tongue at her lips.

KORA TERRY's campy kitsch reputation is well-deserved and this cult film can be watched over and over again. The songs and musical numbers alone make this one of the genre's best.

Two women,Terry and Mara, twins. Terry is so self centered mean that she sends her daughter to private school. Shes' mean to her husband Michael,played by Will Quadflieg,I had thought he was Joseph Sieber,who is orchestra leader and composer and aspiring concert violinist ,aka Vienesse Night's 1930, Mara is the other half sweet, low singing voice and a bit passive. Now Mr Sieber plays Tobs both their friend and theatrical assistant who goes with them every where. They all work in vaudeville, Weimar district style.Terry steals some papers, at a party,from a government official she had an affair with, takes the whole troupe to Afrika where she going to sell them to another country , through a channel,played by Franz Schefietland , who looks like he was born Mars, he has a funny scull shape, in th 50s he could of played a mad scientist or a U.F.O monster very simply if they did make outer space horror movies in Germany back then.Well Tobs and Mara finds out and she accidentally shoot's her sister. Tobs takes the guilt and she plays her sister Terry and inherits all her problems.The filmmaker try to portray Terry as a Mata Hary. Ms Rokk does a Mata Hary dance with a python, which would be later imitated by dancers at adult night clubs in the late 60's and 70'sbut go a little bit further like putting the snakes head in their mouths.Germany obviously thought that popular theaters in Broadway all were dinner theaters The filmmaker was confusing them with the old supper clubs.Since in Afrika it was terry who was hired poor Mara has to be a dance hostess on the other side of the club. She attempts to succeed on her own with her small voice but it doesn't work out. I heard that her stand in ,who's face was almost shown, was a concentration camp victim who one freedom from it when she got the role. they didn't mention her name on the box. I wonder what happen to her ?