Die Zirkusprinzessin

Limbo sets, cheap costumes, Kálmán's brilliant orchestrations replaced by arrangements suggestive of Las Vegas in the 60s (or, occasionally, the Benny Hill Show), and excruciatingly bad sound, with dialog scenes that seem to have no room tone at all (I half suspect the whole thing was shot MOS and then looped—or dubbed—in a dead room), contrasted with musical numbers that all seem to have been taped in a hockey arena with the microphones ten feet away from the singers.

I might add that Mister X's world-famous circus routine is mostly a perfectly ordinary trapeze act, but with a grand finalé that is physically impossible.

At least the ingénue is cute.

If you don't mind it being completely in Russian, the 1982 version is far superior—if you can find it.

Die Zirkusprinzessin(The Circus Princess) is not one of the greats to me, but it does deserve to be more than a rarity in operetta with its wonderful music making up for its somewhat unusual story. To introduce yourself to this operetta, this is a good place to start. The editing is awkward in places, but the lavish costumes and settings make it more than pleasant on a visual front. Plus there are subtitles, which will please anybody unfamiliar with Die Zirkusprinzessin, and they are easy to follow. The live animals are a joy to behold. The direction, even without the live-performance spontaneity, is full of charm, zest and heart, the final trapeze stunt is very well done. Musically, I have nothing to complain about, the orchestral playing is both lush and stylish, which is perfect for operetta and the tempos are well-judged, never feeling as though they're rushing or dragging. Ingelborg Hallstein is a real charmer as Fedora, while Rudolf Schlock, looking younger actually than his real age(to me that is) is handsome and virile. In conclusion, the operetta is a rarity, but deserves better recognition, and this is a very good place to start as well as being a very nice opera film on the whole. 9/10 Bethany Cox