In 1931, induced by the runaway success of their musical comedies, UFA decided to further cash in on the popularity of comedians andnightclub singers of the time by producing a series of shorts featuring a number of performances without a surrounding narrative arc. Today,Kabarett-Programm Nr. 1, the only known survivor of the series among at least six produced, is a document of rare value: one of the mostauthentic audiovisual accounts of German language cabaret entertainment during its prime. Highlights include performances by singer Marcel Wittrisch and dancer Genia Nikolajewa, as well as a lovely sketch by Trude Berliner and Siegfried Arno, two of the most famouscomedians of the time, both of whom fully embraced the new medium of sound film.

Lukas Foerster

Max (Max Hansen), Paul (Paul Morgan) and Carl (Carl Jöken) are broke but not at all desperate: the year is 1930 and the newly developed sound cinema is booming. While having a beer, the three friends decide to get in on the money and found the production company Trio-Film. Not bothering all that much with trifles such as movie scripts and work ethics, they embark on their quest to conquer the box office. In 1924, two of the three main actors, Hansen and Morgan, had been founding members of Kabarett der Komiker (Comedian’s cabaret), a highly influential Berlin-based theatre coining a special brand of anarchic political comedy. Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari is the most direct attemptto translate Hansen’s and Morgan’s explosive stage presence to the screen, and probably the closest approximation to the golden era of nightclub comedy entertainment of the Weimar Republic ever put on film. Taking aim, this time around, not so much on the political scene of the day but rather on the emerging sound cinema, Das Kabinett des Dr. Larifari switches between parody of various genres, with RobertWiene’s expressionist classic being no more than one among many drive-by targets. With catchy tunes written by Hansen, Robert Stolz andFranz Wachsmann and self-reflexive breakdowns of its own fictional setup, this may be a German Hellzapoppin’, with a decidedly off-beat groove. 

Lukas Foerster