Review of Kaiserball

Very enjoyable, cleverly written and well-paced operetta-kitsch nonsense. Directed by Franz Antel, of whom I am never too kind, with a steadier and more capable hand than usual, but what would have been the result if a real good director would have directed the material? Still, the story quickly moves on, the situations change rapid to keep the interest, sentimentality is kept in check (though we could have done without it in the last 10 minutes), the script has a load of well-thought out (verbal and visual) funny ideas and there are a couple of catchy ditties. Nice cinematography and colours, beautiful dresses.

The viewer has to endure Rudolf Prack who walks about as if he does not really understand that this is a comedy (but maybe his uniform was too tight), but this is compensated by the rest of the cast who has great fun. Hannelore Bollmann is beautiful, Rolf Olsen at moments is a bit over the top but still very funny, Jane Tilden is a fine type cast as the extravagant countess (that voice!), to name but a few. And of course there is Hans Moser who is in great form here and has the one hilarious moment after the other; his handling of a telephone conversation with Vienna (Rolf Olsen on the line) had me roaring with laughter with tears in my eyes.

In short: despite the drawbacks, the viewer also should have a ball.