La donna che ho sognato

One of the most expensive projects of its time - between the 5 million RM of "Münchhausen" and 8,5 million RM of "Kolberg" - this film is worth its reputation. I do understand that it can be watched without subtitles, but having translated this film recently I urge you to find a subtitled version, or you'll miss most of its fun. The dialog is very snappy and sometimes even funny. But it's the musical numbers that really are the piece de resistance here, building an enormous Agfacolor alternative reality to the world that was devastated by the War. It's reported that the orderly Germans occasionally stampeded the fellow citizens trying to get a ticket - such was the enthusiasm as the film opened in the late summer of 1944. Rökk is not only a brilliant, acrobatic dancer and a passable comedienne, but also a good singer, starting the film in low cabaret-like voice and showing off her soubrette soprano towards the end. She always was on the stout side (she probably needed strong muscles to perform her acrobatics), but in this film she really looks good and elegant. Highly enjoyable piece of Nazi film-making without a trace of propaganda.

After the war this film (along with many other German musicals) was screened as a "trophy picture" in Moscow and the whole Soviet Union. Ironically, the words of Herr Göbbels became true: German film would march with the German army anywhere in the World. The army didn't make it, the film did. Even more: the grand finale, really a beautiful piece of film-making, made it to the syllabus of the course in the Soviet Film Institute, where it remained for a long time. In the greatest of all the Russian cult TV serials - The 17 Moments of Spring - there's a lengthy scene where the protagonist, the Soviet spy in the Nazi Germany, sits his way through this film for the 13th time. The voice over explains that he hated the film but was waiting for the appearance of a secret courier; nevertheless the fact that about 3 minutes of the screen time (eagerly watched in 1971 by about 200 million people) is used, to show one of the dance numbers in the finale, proves that The Girl Of My Dreams had been firmly established in the collective knowledge of the Soviet citizen one way or another.

Musical, comedy. The picture produced by fascist Germany, which came to the Soviet Union as a trophy and was shown in cinemas of our huge country, and I learned about it thanks to a tiny episode from the magnificent Soviet detective series "The meeting place cannot be changed." As a result, I still looked at the picture - and was quite satisfied, although some moments were slightly strained. And here's my brief opinion for you - A red-haired impudent woman suits fate. There were both strengths and weaknesses in the picture, which must be mentioned. And here I finish such a long introduction, and get to the point.

So, strengths: 1. The scenario is 1944. Fascist Germany. Popular theater actress Julia, tired of the mundane roles of a "frivolous predator," runs away from her director for a short vacation. Through a chain of unforeseen and unpleasant circumstances, she finds herself visiting two mining engineers. The way to the house is temporarily cut off, so Yulia will have to spend some time with the engineers. But they are both men, and Julia is "bursting with fire". Perhaps during this time she will find her love, because both gentlemen are very worthy people. That's right, this is a light comedy about unexpected love with classic twists and lots of funny situations. The ending is predictable, but it doesn't make it bad. Good dialogues and prescribed characters allow the viewer to look into the soul of the characters and get into their thoughts, feelings and actions. Surprises are not worth waiting for, but for a pleasant evening in the company of a loved one is a good option.

2. Humor - as I have already said, there are a lot of funny situations in the picture that cause sincere laughter and even some emotion. Yes, it is not shipko original, but the classic templates here are well outplayed in the German way. Yes, there will be no wild laughter here, but it will definitely make you smile.

3. Atmosphere - although this comedy musical was able to create an easy and relaxed romantic atmosphere, completely removing even hints of politics (since it was the penultimate military year and everyone already understood that Germany would soon lose the war), it was not possible to completely escape from the realities of wartime (food only by distribution, the absence of any snacks in a restaurant, explosions taken by the heroine for shots), but not every viewer will even pay attention to this. Moreover, the picture was shot not even in Germany, but in Prague, the capital of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

4. Scenery - the creators managed to immerse the viewer in the atmosphere of a mountain adventure. Engineers' houses, furnishings, communication with the outside world, and so on. Of course, here and there combined shooting and even toy decorations come out, but this is 1944 and there were still such technologies, so this circumstance cannot be a minus a priori.

So, weaknesses: 1. Frivolity - it concerns musical numbers and many moments from the picture itself. The thing is, how to say it as correctly as possible, Julia Fraulyan often shows the viewer her "lower" dignity (only at these moments underwear is present on her, so it can't be called pornography), the first half of the picture she generally walks in a blouse and a chic fur coat. And in some moments she appears almost without clothes (one black dress from the final musical number is worth something, where her "upper dignity" is even visible). Don't get me wrong, I myself didn't mind looking at this beauty (yes, what can I say, Marika Reck in two words "girl-fire"), but from the point of view of the Soviet people of that time it was almost pornography. Why did Stalin's officials allow this picture to be rolled? After all, it is already clear from the first musical number that this is an "ideologically alien" picture to the Soviet viewer. But this did not prevent the "Girl of My Dreams" from becoming insanely popular until the mid-fifties. What to do, the forbidden fruit is sweet.

2. Tightness - it should be explained here that I really love the genre of musicals (one of the few in Russia, unfortunately), so I watched the musical numbers with the keenest interest, but they are the weakest point of the picture, because they are monstrously tightened. But I watched the full version of the picture, which lasts one hour and thirty-seven minutes. Here the middle looks very cheerful, but musical numbers are a sleepy potion that will put anyone to sleep.

A little about the main characters: 1. Julia, performed by Marika Reck, is a popular actress and singer with the role of a "predatory cat", who decided to take a break from everything and escape on a short vacation, in which there were two gentlemen, each better than the other, who are ready to shelter an accidental guest and, if possible, marry her to herself. And the heroine has to choose. She herself is an eccentric, slightly flighty Fraulein, not devoid of some advantages, and I'm not just talking about stunning looks here. And this role of Marika was a great success, and it is impossible to argue with these.

2. Peter, played by Wolfgang Luksha, is one of the engineers Julia visits. Quiet, rather unsociable and modest, openly despises the singer, which offends her dignity. Wolfgang played his hero perfectly and you sincerely empathize with him and rejoice in his moments of triumph.

3. Erwin, played by Walter Muller, is a second engineer who is also ready to shelter an unexpected guest. He behaves more openly and even intrusively than he insults Yulia, but flirting is flirting. Walter played a man with an open soul and also with a character.

I am really glad that I got acquainted with this picture, although the age limit should not be "12+" but "16+" because of the frivolous behavior of the main character.

As a result, we have a good musical comedy, with a good script, a light atmosphere, too long musical numbers, funny and funny humor, and good acting.

My rating is 7 out of 10 and my recommendation for viewing!

After the completion of an exhaustive schedule, a theater actress by the name of "Julia Koestner" (Marika Rokk) decides that she needs a break from her director (played by Georg Alexander) who continues to insist that she continue on with further performances. So, to remedy that situation, she hurriedly boards a train to put some distance between them but, as luck would have it, her luggage is left behind at the station. To make matters even worse, she mistakenly gets off the train during a brief stop and finds herself stranded in the middle of the night with nobody around for miles. Fortunately, she eventually finds an engineer station where two men named "Peter Groll" (Wolfgang Lukschy) and "Erwin Forster" (Walter Muller) provide her with a place to stay for the night. Not long afterward, however, her rather entitled personality begins to annoy Peter--and this creates problems for all concerned. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an interesting film due in large part to the time and place in which it was made. As expected from a musical-comedy of this sort, there are several song-and-dance numbers which, to be quite honest, were all rather ordinary and needed the spectacular costumes and background scenery to really shine through. Likewise, for a romantic comedy, the chemistry between the leading actors was also somewhat subdued as well. Be that as it may, while certainly not on the same level as some of the better musicals produced by Hollywood, this film still had its moments, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I watched this film out of curiosity more than anything else and several things bemused me:

1) Marika Rökk: Whilst one cannot doubt for one minute that she was fearless and acrobatic dancer, the dance numbers are totally graceless. The whole thing looks "heavy" and Marika Rökk is like a heifer. In addition, and probably due to the garish Agfa colour, she looks a bit like a drag queen... Saying that, with the right director and right script, she could have been a really good comedienne comparable to the talented Lucille Ball.

2) Both males leads are so plain and lackluster and totally forgettable.

3) The script is very choppy as if scenes were put together in a higgldy-piggledy fashion.

For me the only pleasurable parts were the scenes with the great Grethe Weiser... It is a shame she only appears in just a few scenes.

Overall, I would not recommend this film, unless you are an unconditional fan of Marika Rökk.

This revue-film starts (appr. 9 minutes) and finishes (appr. 15 minutes) with entertaining revue-numbers, but between these the viewer has to deal with an extremely nondescript and tendentious love story (the woman dancer can only be acceptable to the engineer if she becomes the simple German Hausfrau). Moreover, Jacoby's direction is nondescript as well, as usual. Seeing the difference in style between the revue scenes and other scenes (in all his films) I always wondered whether he was helped with the revue scenes.

Here Marika Rökk dances better and livelier than in her other films; she is sometimes really good here, not only in the revue scenes, but also as the comedienne. The rest of the cast is boring and probably not helped by Jacoby's direction; even Grethe Weiser's contribution is poor. Jacob Tiedtke, however, as the recalcitrant theater visitor has a hilarious bit part.

Is already the story tendentious, the last revue number is not only of attractive design and with ditto choreography and music, but also a political message to top the tendency of the story: the revue moves from Germany via Japan, Italy and Spain back to Germany! A clear statement, indeed.

Further the film is noteworthy for its sexual hints, of which the most clear one is the reference made to blowing up by the engineer of hill number C. Both the dancer and the engineer study the map on which hill C is situated at the bottom. This is also the film that allegedly outraged Goebbels: one of the dresses of Rökk has a décolleté until her navel. Combined with sensual dancing, it was too much: the dress stayed, but the dancing was redone and toned down.