Musica nell'aria

In many ways this is a very strange film. After all, three expatriates who escaped Europe due to the rise of Hitler all were major factors in creating this film. Joe May, Erich Pommer and Billy Wilder all worked to direct, produce and write this film...a film which brings us an incredibly idealized and Hitler-free version of Bavaria! In this fairy tale land, everyone is happy, there's no repression and militarization simply doesn't exist. I wonder how these three men felt about this. Was this their homage to the Germany they used to love or did they feel a bit dirty for producing such a pasteurized view of modern Germany? Who knows...all I know is that having these three men being responsible for bringing the play to the big screen is interesting.

As for the film, it has LOTS of music...lots and lots. And it's not necessarily the enjoyable type by today's standards--being the operatic style popularized by Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy. Still, the main song is very hummable and the plot slight, but enjoyable. Plus, while her voice was not brilliant, I was surprised because Gloria Swansen appeared to actually be singing in the film...competently. Overall, a silly but enjoyable piece of fluff that is a nice time passer about folks learning to accept their lots in life. I can see why this film did nothing to help the career of Erich Plommer, as it wasn't a bad film but an easy one for the studios to ignore...as well as his subsequent efforts.

... and believe it or not that weirdness factor alone - the factor of a director (Joe May) and one of the writers (Billy Wilder) both being people who found themselves in the American film industry precisely BECAUSE of them fleeing Hitler's Germany and yet painting a picture of Germany in which none of these fascists exist - earned this one an extra star from me just for the curiosity of it all. Without that curiosity factor this is a rather mediocre film. In fairness, this film was adapted from a 1932 musical that was, of course, pre Hitler.

At first I believed that this was all taking place in another time. The initial small town setting in Bavaria with horse drawn carriages and the traditional German garb complete with lederhosen allowed me to believe that. But then the small town folk arrive in Munich and when I saw the modern buildings, automobiles, and modern fashions (1934 that is) I realized I was in present day Germany, and I was thrown for a loop.

The script is the typical output of early 30's pre Zanuck Fox which primarily made films for rural audiences and talked up the values of rural life. A small town Bavarian composer ( Al Shean as Dr. Walter Lessing) is honored by the town fathers with a financed trip to Munich so he can try and advance his music. His daughter Sieglinde (June Lang) will accompany him. Karl Roder (Douglass Montgomery), the town schoolteacher, and Sieglinde have an understanding, so naturally he feels protective. So he joins a group of mountain climbers and hikes over the mountains to Munich to look after them both.

Meanwhile in Munich a couple consisting of singing actress Frieda Hotzfelt (Gloria Swanson) and composer/actor Bruno Mahler (John Boles) are constantly feuding. In fact they say they have been feuding for seven years but have been involved all of that time, yet are not married. At about the same time they are at the height of an argument that, to tell you the truth, looks silly and contrived, in come the professor, his daughter, and Karl seeking the professor's old music publishing friend. Bruno's partner in writing the music for a new show has left town, leaving an opening for the professor to get at least one of his songs into the show. Gloria is attracted to Karl, and seems to want to make a gigilo out of him as she packs for Venice and begs him to come along. Bruno thinks that Sieglinde would make a great new star to replace Freida. Will big town life corrupt these Bavarian babes in the woods? Watch and find out.

There really is one good song in the bunch - "I've Told Every Little Star" - and fortunately that is the one that is repeated the most. As for Bruno and Freida, they are portrayed ridiculously. There seems to be no substance to their arguing, and even though they are given German names they sound and act as American as apple pie when the film took great pains to make everybody else in the cast sound German. I've seen John Boles in a number of roles in the 30's and even the 20's (The Desert Song) and he was always believable, so I guess I have to lay the blame on him coming across as a ham on the director. I could say the same for Ms. Swanson. This was her last feature film role until 1941, and then she had no other role in a feature film until Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard". I wonder if them working together on this film had anything to do with that?

This is a lightweight piece of musical fluff- very stagebound from the Broadway hit as it is transferred to early musical film. The libretto isn't much and only one of the seven songs became a hit - I'VE TOLD EVERY LITTLE STAR. However, it is the star personalities that make this a delightful romp.

Gloria Swanson and John Boles are the protypes for Fred and Lili Graham, the feuding husband and wife leads in KISS ME KATE. Here they perfectly assess the comedic and vocal requirements of their roles and play them to the hilt. As the young male lead Douglass Montgomery gives one of his finest performances, full of joy and innocence. June Lang fares somewhat less as the ingenue support, registering neither talent nor personality. Al Shean does his usual Charles-Winniger want to be turn as the old song writer. Marjorie Main has a silent role as Swanson's maid.

The score contains two dances and the songs: SCHOOL PRAYER; BEYOND THE HILL; WE BELONG TOGETHER; I'M COMING HOME; ALL ALONE; ONE MORE DANCE; and the hit I'VE TOLD EVERY LITTLE STAR.

A must-see for Swanson fans - after seeing this and TONIGHT OR NEVER, it stll baffles me why she wasn't a big talkies star - she could do anything - drama, comedy, musical - with flair and inventiveness. It was certainly our loss.

This was an excellent adaptation to film from the stage hit by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. The opening Alpine scene reminds you of a later film, "Sound of Music". A strong screenplay by Howard Young and Billy Wilder that avoided becoming too saccharine.Gloria Swanson was given top billing as a tempestuous German Prima Donna and she did all her own singing which was quite good. She really was a hoot in her role and she really was a natural for comedy. John Boles plays the show's lyric writer and is suave as ever and sung on his own rather well too. Douglas Montgomery is fun to watch. He's a little bit on the goofy side and his songs were dubbed by a James O'Brien. June Lang played the heroine trying to break into show business but fails. Her vocals were dubbed as well by a Betty Hiestand. Ms. Lang showed great effort but like her character she played, doesn't quite cut it. Perhaps she took the same advice and went home. We never heard from her again. Al Shean is also a classic act as the Poppa.

A whimsical, agreeably carefree Lubitsch-inspired operetta that has pleasantly melodic Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein music, a lyrical fairy-tale German setting, and a fine romance with an eccentric cast of characters. The stars, with their charm and enthusiasm intact, are joy to watch. Gloria Swanson and her bickering partner John Boles are secondary to the young vibrant couple, played by a handsome Douglass Montgomery and a lithesome June Lang. Montegomery's role as the school teacher Karl Roder in the German village may be the most cheerful role he has ever played. The most tuneful song "We Belong Together" is so melodious and beguiling that you might want to see the film again and again so you wouldn't forget it. Although the film was made for Fox and directed by the implacable German émigré Joe May, this kind of frothy European-style operetta is reminiscent of those by Lubitsch. The difference is that Lubitsch's operettas show irony and feeling for its characters, whereas Joe May's movie is merely a frou-frou, an inconsequential fluff only to showcase the musical talents of its first-rate cast.