Lilian Harvey is the unforgettable Lola Cornero and Tilly Schneider casts her in a comedy which is a perfect vehicle. Two men, a wife and two images of woman. From this bunch of figures, like a rabbit from a hat, infinite combinations are born with the man totally at the mercy of a woman so strong as to transform herself and give life to the figure of the passionate Spanish lover and the baby fiancée. Passing from one woman to the other, like on a merry-go-round, the spectator passes from the frenetic rhythm of the tango to the sweet embrace of the waltz and is quickly, like the male figures in the film, won over and overwhelmed. For years, this comedy, brought by the Red Army to Moscow as a war trophy, has been practically invisible. Now that it has finally reappeared, it is not to be missed.

“Film no profession for adults!’”

It cannot be definitely ascertained, today, whether this observation from the film Ein Blonder Traum was made bt Walter Reisch or Billy Wilder. But it is certain that Orson Welles, the directors’ director, came to the same conclusion when many years later, he characterized the cinema as a toy for adults. The ideological difference of both these viewpoints is more psychic than based on the thing-in-itself. One could add to this: Film is the apparent dream activity of a collective unconsciousness which tries to maintain its ritual, whatever the attitude of the individual to this theme may have been, is and will be -film is the expression, creed and evidence at the same time. It is the eye-witness of an epoch, an idea and a creative power.

‘Film…is here for the masses’, was the motto of the cleverest Berlin film director of the turbolent twenties and he gave the public what it demanded: the great Pi-pa-po (much ado about nothing): the conflict which really wasn’t one, humor over which one laughed in spite of everithing, the feeling of being in another world, and to make the illusion complete, the star who had to continue playng her part in real life. One of these stars was a slender young woman, a chorous girl with the attractive name, Lilian Harvey.

Robert Land discovered her for the cinema in Vienna, then Richard Eichberg gave her parts in his productions and had her follow him to Berlin, the film metropolis where her image was tailored to suit her perfectly; then the still-in-her-teens-actress was presented skinfully to bith the public and press. The pupil relied upon the advice of her mentor and was successful. A few years later, her market value had increased considerably and she changed to Universum Film AG studios which under the name of UFA had become world-known. Again she permitted herself to be advised and guided by shrewd people and she advanced to te position of a top star of the European films. Then she wandered directly with the security of a sleepwalker to Hollywood, the film Olympus.

There, too, she obeyed the rules of the game, worked hard but was judged to be inadequate; she returned to Europe and hardly noticed that her popularity was running low. For the cinema is not a profession for adults”. […]

Herbert Holba