Ellas somos nosotros

Someone taped this film from German TV for me and I was stunned to discover just how closely Billy Wilder followed the plot in creating his masterpiece "Some Like It Hot."

Wilder has commented that this film inspired him because it contained a single scene in which a pair of hungry out of work musicians joined an all-girl orchestra.

Not so!

The entire film deals with the two musicians who join an all-girl orchestra. There is a gruff older band leader, a la "Sweet Sue"; a band singer who both men fall in love with; an overnight train ride to a resort in Bavaria; much switching in and out of drag to woo the band singer, and close escapes from being unmasked.

Granted, SLIH is in every way a far funnier and better crafted film. The shift of time frame to Roaring 20s America gives it added energy as well as a period sheen that also comfortably distances the audience from the film's gender-bending humor.

Nevertheless, the two male leads in FANFAREN play 'refined' German ladies of a certain age with great comic timing, then pose as the 'cousin' and 'brother' of their doppelgaengers.

FANFAREN is a low-budget comedy, lacking the star power, production values or memorable music of its Hollywood successor.

Grethe Weiser, who plays the "Sweet Sue" role, was a venerable supporting comic actress who appeared in several of Zarah Leander 1940's spectacles. She alone provides a commanding presence here.

I wish some creative programmer would get a print of this film and screen it with SLIH, so audiences could see the similarities and differences for themselves.

Of course this movie does not reach the eight-years-later production "Some Like It Hot" by Billy Wilder, but nevertheless this one is a real big fun! The story is well-known, in "Fanfaren..." you're only missing the opening with machine guns. The rest is quite the same. Billy Wilder was famous for his "tempo", the running gags, the brilliance of his comedies. "Fanfaren..." is much less confused and thrilling, but a solid German comedy with the stars of that time! Georg Thomalla must have loved playing the "old spouse", and Dieter Borsche - womanizer of his time! - looked very much better dressed up like a woman! Perhaps it is not really necessary to compare these two movies, but: Grethe Weiser is surely the better "Sweet Sue". Think of "Some Like It Hot" with her in the role of "Sue"...

A good film - but a rarity, where the film it inspired is better than the original. (But when the "remake" is directed by Billy Wilder and has a cast of Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon, how could the original be as good?) Yet, this film is very enjoyable in its own right - including the main song ("ja, nein, ja, nein, ja") performed in many different styles....

Billy Wilder may have said that he only used the premise of this film and one scene in SOME LIKE IT HOT, but aside from the absence of gangsters in the original and women who seem to catch on a lot quicker to what's going on, I didn't see many dissimilarities.

Both films are a lot of fun - although back to back viewings will be problematic for most unless they're someplace that does excellent scheduling of foreign films. I doubt you'll find this one in any recorded form easily.