Sunshine Susie

This was the English-language version of "Die Privatsekretärin". The German language version was directed by Wilhelm Thiele, a talented director of light fluff. Since the German version is unavailable to me, I can't tell how much of the inventive montage work is due to Victor Saville, the director of the English version.

I've checked the cast list of both, and the only talent, beyond the original Viennese operetta, is star Renate Müller, who leaves Germany to go to Vienna for work. She joins the typing pool of a bank, where manager Morris Harvey rips up her day's work and tells her she will have to stay late because she refuses to go out with him. Bank director Owen Nares sees her as she is leaving for the day and, without saying who he is, takes her out for a night on the town.

The prince-in-disguise-courts-poor-girl plot is still with us -- what else is "You've Got Mail"? -- but the time for Viennese operetta has long passed. Still, if you have a taste for the form, you'll take some pleasure in this early talkie version. Jack Hulbert, as a porter, is the lead comic, albeit in heavy make-up. He does a couple of eccentric dances and sings a funny song. Owen Nares, near the end of his matinée-idol phase, serves very well to support the leading lady, and there are a couple of imaginatively staged chorus numbers. I enjoyed myself very much.

This early British musical (a 1931 "Gainsborough Pictures" release as SUNSHINE SUSIE) was one of those made simultaneously in English, German and probably other languages rather than re-dubbing or subtitling one filming. Major German star, Renate Muller (many argued that after Marlene Dietrich and probably before Zarah Leander she was the German film ideal in the 30's - she will remind many of American Marilyn Miller without the major dancing) puts in a delightful period performance as the "Sunshine Susie" of the title in the last film she was able to make abroad before her death six years later under suspicious circumstances while still at the top of her career.

The piece of entertaining fluff that the film is (it's about a talented private secretary - the Austrian operetta it was cut down from was called DIE PRIVATSECKRETARIN and the entire piece is set in Vienna - rising from the typing pool to marry the boss with the aid of a fun loving musical corporate gatekeeper who is also a slyly presumptuous acquaintance of said boss who assists the boss in passing himself as a mere fellow worker. There are some surprising parallels not obvious in this bare bones synopsis to the Pulitzer Prize winning HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING thirty years later!), it stands as a stark example of the contrast between the light tuneful entertainment so popular as a relief from the first years of the great Depression and the reality that the world around it was descending into.

The starkest contrast comes from the fate of the lead herself - jumping or being thrown from an upper floor window in October of 1937 shortly after Gestapo agents were seen entering the building. Muller, a star heavily courted by the Nazis, was probably doomed by refusing to give up her Jewish lover or make propaganda films, but one can watch this film for pure entertainment alone if one wishes. Muller's singing and comedy still hold a world of charm, and Jack Hulbert as the wily underling, in one of his rare films apart from his wife Cecily Courtneidge, gives a delightfully restrained performance made up in a mustache and German brush cut. His musical number, "I've Got A Rich Aunt" with his eccentric dancing is a real highlight. Owen Nares as the boss, Herr Arvray, makes a nice pairing with Muller in an era where the male ideals were Conrad Nagel and Leslie Howard, and sings pleasantly enough. His long career (he also died relatively young at only 53 during the war) belied the stereotype that the coming of sound doomed silent film actors - the final third of his successful career blossomed in the sound era where he may be best remembered for the film versions of AREN'T WE ALL and THE SHOW GOES ON with Gracie Fields.

Virtually forgotten today, SUNSHINE SUSIE (I saw it in a print of the original release recorded from BBC One a few years ago) was issued in the U.S. the spring after its London Premiere as THE OFFICE GIRL. Trifle 'though it remains, it deserves to be more broadly available. It's a quality trifle.

This i believe is a remake of a German film which also starred Renate Muller and used the same score.The 3 leading actors are an ill suited bunch and do not really work well together.Jack Hulbert is guilty of his usual mugging and it is as if he is playing to the patrons in the theatre gallery.5 minutes of him goes a long way.Renate Muller is rather chubby and a bit of a contrast to the British female stars of the era,Matthews,Neagle etc.Owen Nares believe it or not was the matinée idol of his day.He reminds me of a rather stuffy teacher rather than a romantic leading man.The music is tuneful,the plot inconsequential and some really attractive sets which would rival any of those of Van Nest Polglase