Reviews

The key to understanding the movie and profiting deeply from its hidden insights is to notice, to analyze and to reflect on the scenes in which a mirror is used by the director in order to tell a hidden story behind the apparent one. Any good comedy is just the communicable surface of a deep tragedy, and this is true for this movie, too. While Sonja Ziemann was 31 at the time of the reeling, she plays a girl about 10 years younger than that. Rudolf Prack plays a person who could very well be his true age, i.e. 55. This alone should warn one to take the story at its surface level. The most revealing scene, though, is the opening one which shows the first and biggest mirror, namely the street and sidewalk, whetted by rainfall, which image the cloudy sky above. The earth is the location that is capable of imaging, or capturing, the heavens. The mirror scenes can be categorized into 4 categories: Dany (Sonja Ziemann) alone with the mirror, Pratt (Rudolf Prack) alone with the mirror (only 1 scene which is very decisive), both of them separated by a mirror that makes up an axis through the scene, both of them being together by being located on the same side of that axis. Also, consider the figure of St. Martin in the rear of Pratt's studio. Whether director Borsody knew what he did is doubtful. The more astounding is the achievement accomplished: He did everything right, even if one relates the mirror scenes to theories of symmetry breaking in nuclear physics.

Historically correct persiflage of the life "inside" the theater, behind the curtain. The impression of strangeness derives from that we are taken to the pre-television era. Played very fast, and thus very funny. Compare the introductory scene to the one of "Adventures in Babysitting." One of the better performances of Wolf Albach-Retty, who may have been more, in his time, than just Romy's father.

The way Rudolf Prack and Bruce Low appear in this movie is like we want to keep them in mind: As forever young. - The story is quite parallel to the one of "Schwarzwaldmelodie" (1956), with a mere exchange of cast and characters: In the later movie, Rudolf Prack is replaced by Claus Biederstaedt, while Walter Giller adds profile to the migrant musicians. - Thus, "Heimatfilms" are not for entertainment, but are of high interest to the cultural philosopher and social psychologist.

The story is dumb (pilots of airplane bail out while passengers don't even notice), the setting is usually inside a studio, but the number and combination of extraordinary actors is quite unusual. Karin Dor and Stewart Granger make such an intriguing couple that one would just wish they should have been used much more often. The more precious is this rare specimen of their and Curt Juergen's artistry. - A piece of historical interest to the old movies enthusiast.