Litvak's undistinguished second European feature comes in a couple of languages and uses montage and moving camera to try to disguise the thinness of it's script.
A very Germanic looking Statue of Liberty introduces New York playboy Liedtke. Complete with receding hair line and heavy make up, he is no more plausible a romantic lead than he was in Lubitsch's OYSTER PRINCESS / Die Austernprinzessin and SUMURUN more than a decade before.
To end his disastrous encounters with women, he sails off on his re-named yacht, with a crew comic butler Bressart has recruited among similarly disenchanted water front low lifes. Years on, things are already getting musical comedy tense, even before they they pull trim Lilian Harvey, in her one piece and bathing cap, from the English Channel. Harvey was at her peak (CONGRESS DANCES is made the same year) and makes a lively impression, though her one dance number, doing deck calisthenics, includes a really awkward cart wheel.
Things are a bit more interesting on shore, with Lilian got up as a news boy, mixing with the real Nice Carnival crowd, a favourite setting for the Russian ex-pat film makers.
Litvak's style is still developing, with the first attempts at things in his later, better films CHANSON D'UNE NUIT and COEUR DE LILIAS. He has however begun as he intends to go, with name stars and skilled collaborators like Planer or Margo Lion (Polly in the Pabst OPERA DE QUAT'SOUS) whose Zanzi-Bar number is a highlight and a striking demonstration of mobile camera. This probably transmitted to assistant director Ophuls.
The technical razle-dazzle makes the film film appear to be made years later but it doesn't sparkle. The intrigue never involves. The numbers are un-memorable. Bressart's comedy is unfunny. The lead looks like Harvey's father and the studio filmed cabins never seem connected with the real ship deck scenes.
A very Germanic looking Statue of Liberty introduces New York playboy Liedtke. Complete with receding hair line and heavy make up, he is no more plausible a romantic lead than he was in Lubitsch's OYSTER PRINCESS / Die Austernprinzessin and SUMURUN more than a decade before.
To end his disastrous encounters with women, he sails off on his re-named yacht, with a crew comic butler Bressart has recruited among similarly disenchanted water front low lifes. Years on, things are already getting musical comedy tense, even before they they pull trim Lilian Harvey, in her one piece and bathing cap, from the English Channel. Harvey was at her peak (CONGRESS DANCES is made the same year) and makes a lively impression, though her one dance number, doing deck calisthenics, includes a really awkward cart wheel.
Things are a bit more interesting on shore, with Lilian got up as a news boy, mixing with the real Nice Carnival crowd, a favourite setting for the Russian ex-pat film makers.
Litvak's style is still developing, with the first attempts at things in his later, better films CHANSON D'UNE NUIT and COEUR DE LILIAS. He has however begun as he intends to go, with name stars and skilled collaborators like Planer or Margo Lion (Polly in the Pabst OPERA DE QUAT'SOUS) whose Zanzi-Bar number is a highlight and a striking demonstration of mobile camera. This probably transmitted to assistant director Ophuls.
The technical razle-dazzle makes the film film appear to be made years later but it doesn't sparkle. The intrigue never involves. The numbers are un-memorable. Bressart's comedy is unfunny. The lead looks like Harvey's father and the studio filmed cabins never seem connected with the real ship deck scenes.
