Leander Glittering.

The 1939 Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht / The Life and Loves of  Tschaikovsky, It Was a Gay Ballnight / It Has Been a Glittering Night of the Ball  must rate as the most kitschy film of all time, a Nazi German account of Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowsky’s secret love for the wife of a rich Russian, backed by the composer's music and mounted on a grotesquely grandiose scale.

After a 1865 set up with Walter Slezak’s dad as a benign pianist filling in the background, we get to dignified Zarah Leander entering a masked ball where a swarm of uniformed couples are waltzing to Tschaikovsky, while limber young cupie doll ballerina Marika Rökk breaks ranks and does her thing solo. Turns out that Leander and Tschaikovsky / third billed Hans Stüwe (Richard Oswald’s Cagliostro) have a secret thing that her husband Aribert Wäscher (Pola Negri’s Charles Bovary), who’s supposed to be in Odessa, doesn’t know about. 

However he shows up before the midnight unmasking, taking the fun out of the reunion.

Stüwe’s agent and his publisher Paul Dahlke are not getting behind him because that costs money, so Zarah, in between a couple of numbers vocalised in glamorous mid shot, hits on the idea of bank rolling his career out of the house keeping on the principal that Wäscher is too rich to know.

Rökk & Rasp - rauschende Ballnacht.

This provides the film's far fetched dynamic. If Zarah leaves home, the enabling funds will dry up and the Tschaikovsky genius will never be known. Enter dastardly (aren’t they all?) critic Fritz Rasp (Metropolis)  barely recognisable. His allegations cause Stüwe to slap him, meaning Fritz has to demand satisfaction. However rather than face our hero on the field of honor, he rats him out to the husband. Interestingly, the film only comes to life during Rasp’s few scenes, a notable tribute to the great actor who manages to shine in all this big budget mediocrity.

To avoid scandal, Stüwe hastily marries Rökk, abandoning his bride on their wedding night for her to rush off into the snow in her fluffy white number and celebrate with the drinkers. There follows the composer’s exhausting tour of Europe with double exposed musicians working through The Pathetic Symphony.

Stüwe & Rökk - rauschende Ballnacht.

All come back exhausted and Karl Hellmer, who makes an impression as Tchaikowski’s servant, drops with Cholera which his heedless master contracts coming to his aid. Tearful deathbed scenes follow.

All this is mounted on a massive scale - a regiment of dancers, an orchestra where Stüwe conducts a battalion of violinists, a functional steam train covered in snow and massive wedding cake decorated decors. Frau Leander registers like a Teutonic, singing Greer Garson and the whole film is a glum match for then contemporary MGM costume musicals like Maytime and Song of Love which drew so much derision in their day. Metro after all put Julien Duvivier and Victor Fleming to work on The Great Waltz, so determined Nazi A List director Carl Froelich is out gunned as he tries to demonstrate his master craft and good taste, deploying all this over production. It appears to indicate the point where Nazi film making plunged after a quiet lively opening for the Third Reich.

  Leander - rauschende Ballnacht

Poor Dr. Goebbels. Despite his determination to show the superiority of the German culture of which he had been made supremo, Leander his most popular star was Swedish, even if their radio refused to play her records after the war, his Führer’s favourite movie was Lives of a Bengal Lancer and down the road Helmut Käutner was going to turn Guy De Maupassant, an author who’d been banned for decadence, into Romanze in Molle, the most impressive film made on the Doktor’s watch. He must have woken up in the mornings and wished he’d been given Agriculture and Fisheries.

By comparison, good taste was the last thing the makers of The Music Lovers worried about and they weren’t going to misrepresent the composer’s sexual preferences either. Their effort is much more fun than this stodge.

Leander's popularity was able to survive her association with Nazi filmaking and two Douglas Sirk movies. Marika Rökk managed to hold down leads dancing through post war musicals directed by her husband Georg Jacoby. Outside of Rasp, everyone else faded.

Transit's copy of Ballnacht has their excellent sub-titles and the film is on You Tube.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Music Lovers - Richard Chamberlain  

 

Barrie Pattison 2021