User Reviews

This is Willi Forst Fantasy version of Franz Jauner ,Famous actor and later theatrical director of Austria.The real Franz life would of made his life story on film better,but, Forst changed it,He avoided the real Franze's suicide ,back in 1870, due to debts in the theater.So the real one was not that successful.He even put a fictitious operetta star ,Marie Geistinger, played by Maria Holst , who was in Wienner Blut, that same year,She sings in this film ,but, I think it's dubbed,in the other film Vienna's Blood, her voice is dubbed when she sing in that film.Willi's characters is in love with this famous Actress,but, is also in love with his girl friend ,Emmi Krall,played by the always lovely Dora Komar, whom ,her character, was the real life love of Jauner.She an aspiring Opera singer,being taught by a fictitious sing teacher Ferdinand ,played by horse voice actor ,Gustav Waldau.Although they claim that Kurd Jurgen is in it as Millocker, I never see him.Siegfried Breuer, who showed up in the Third man 1949, plays an admirer and friend of Maria, Prince HohenBurg, as devious as ever.The only real thing they kept on this film was the fire and his Jail Sentence,Juaner's .This contains elaborate scenes from famous European operetta's played in the theater he directed ,like Gasparone,Die Fledermaus.Then you have gay actor Theodore Danegger show up in this film as a restaurant owner. Paul Horbinger,also in the third man,has his hair dyed brown in this film. Marie end up in the hospital due vocal cord damage,but, the movie ends up happy ,which was not what really happen to the real Franz.Good movie anyway.03/26/15

Finding there to be a limited number of French films from 1940 due to (polite upper-class cough) "The European situation" getting serious,I started searching round for other titles to view for a poll on the best films of 1940. Finding his 1934 Wiener Filme Maskerade to be spellbinding,I was thrilled to see a 1940 offering from auteur Willi Forst,which led to me taking a seat at the Operette.

The plot:

Going to the Carltheater, theatre director Franz Jauner reveals a remarkable skill for staging "Operette" productions,which dazzles audiences and critics when Jauner teams up with diva Maria Geistinger.As Jauner starts becoming the biggest name in Operette behind the scenes,Geistinger finds herself tiring of the genre,and starts going in search of a genre "worthy" of her talents,whilst Jauner witnesses his skills go up in flames.

View on the film:

Going on stage as viewers in Austria looked for an escape from Occupying Nazis,co-writer/(along with Axel Eggebrecht) director/acting auteur Willi Forst & cinematographer Hans Schneeberger unveil a luxury banquet of escapism. For the first slice of his " Viennese Trilogy" Forst gives the various stage set- pieces a three dimensional shine,as the camera elegantly spans across the large stage sets that are matched by the vast volume of the operatic vocals. Cutting and pasting newspaper clippings over the screen that stylishly takes the viewer back to early 1900's Vienna,Forst continues expanding on his Maskerade visual themes via building the rises and burn-outs of the Theater being built on glamorous clothes and glittering ruby walls.

Aiming for the feel-good,the screenplay by Eggbrecht and Forst leaves out the real Franz Jauner dying via suicide after being faced with huge stage debts,in order to present a Vienna which at this time was seen as a free, "fantasy." Bouncing the big personalities of Jauner and Geistinger,the writers shake off any "stuffy" image of the Operette with refreshingly swift,playful dialogue capturing the big egos at play between diva Geistinger and artist Jauner. Going from an artist behind the camera to one on the screen, Willi Forst gives an excellent performance as Jauner,whose desire for perfection is expressed by Forst with a tantalising glee. Whilst joyfully biting into her diva side,the stunning Maria Holst gives Geistinger a fantastic confidence which shimmers in every set- piece,as the curtain goes up on the Operette.