Annie

If there is such a thing like a German Musical - this is it: Glamorous, colorful, star-driven, funny and with some great songs, including the famous "Oh mein Papa", here sung by extremely pleasant to watch Lili Palmer. When a circus comes to a small German town, one of the families find out that the director is the long-lost brother of the respectful head of the family, a fact they would prefer to hide. The circus director's lovely wife manages to save the day and keep the daughter from running away with the circus. Also one of the early performances of Romy Schneider, pre-"Sissi", and you can understand why the German audience fell for her.

It's always a pleasure to see the sadly missed Romy Schneider in her early films ,before the international stardom in the wake of the Sissi trilogy. She's not at the top the bill,(the star being Lili Palmer,back from the USA,who would team up again with Schneider in Radvanyi's "Mädchen in Uniform" (1958)),but her part is more important than of that of the leading lady.She portrays a teenager from a chic family who snubs their black sheep ,the owner of a circus (one of her uncles).But the young girl is not prepared to accept it: this circus draws her and she really feels like becoming part of the troupe.It's a musical and I must admit the songs are not really my cup of tea.But Romy and the lovely colors are pleasant.