In the first of Hartl's two Mozart biographies, Hans Holt plays the robust and dashing composer who, in keeping with the spirit of the film's time of origin, sets out into the world like a soldier of art after his falling out with the Salzburg authorities. Instead of conquering lands, he conquers the hearts of young ladies, like one of his most famous creations.
Vera Meiners' life was sweet but unfortunately for her, it was not to last. Her husband, Jan, left her after she met a former lover in a harmless friendly meeting. Forced to resume her disrupted medical career, she worked in a Swiss clinic but, without the knowledge of the chief surgeon, Vera ordered a risky operation to be performed and was thereafter fired. Penniless, she then works in Spanish nightclubs in order to provide for herself and her child. After many years, she runs into her friend Frank again in one of these nightclubs...
Non-musical account of Puccini's opera: Tosca and Cavaradossi are in love, but the tyrant Scarpia desires Tosca and oppresses Cavaradossi who is fighting for freedom.
To take a revenge on countess Laura, who slapped him at his proposal, the Governor of the occupied Poland gets her fall in love with a poor student, and exposes him during wedding banquet.
Lyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantic hero, an accursed artist.
René and his two artist friends lead a meager but careless life in a Parisian small apartment, their main worry being to avoid the housekeeper. Whenever they get some money they call more friends in and celebrate. This is how he meets beautiful but fragile Denise, who wants to be a singer as himself, and they fall in love. Yet when she finds out her real condition she takes a drastic decision which will determine their fates. La Bohème arias, and more.
He was known as Anatole Litvak during his Hollywood directorial career, but he was still Anatole Litwak when he helmed the German musical Das Lied Einer Nacht (The Song of Night). Famed Polish tenor Jan Kiepura stars as famed Italian tenor Ferraro. Escaping from his tyrannical manager, Ferraro switches identities with a young tourist (Fritz Schulz) and goes off on an unscheduled Swiss holiday. Still travelling incognito, our hero falls in love with a winsome mountain girl (Magda Schneider). Alas, both his romance -- and his freedom -- are placed in jeopardy when it turns out that the charming young fellow with whom Ferraro traded identities was actually a notorious swindler. Anatole Litvak also directed the English-language version of Das Lied Einer Nacht, Be Mine Tonight
Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.
A musician is offered a job in Vienna as stage director, but his disagreements with the aristocratic opera manager end in abrupt firing in spite of a mutual attraction. He's quickly engaged by another theatre and becomes famous for his lavish stage productions and fine acting, which begins their golden age with Suppé and Strauss.
A musical film based on biographical facts about Clara Wieck's love for composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), her marriage against her will, Schumann's triumph, and his tragic end due to mental illness. The film is beautiful and entertaining, full of noble spirit and beautiful words about art and love, which only conflict in a theoretical context; not least thanks to its solid cast, this film is quite serious and far from kitsch. Completed in 1944, during World War II, the film was rejected by the Nazi leadership, but was eventually released and enjoyed success with an audience already weary of war.
The young ice skating talent, Liesl, lands a part in a new Revue at the Palast Theatre simply because she is confused with someone else. In reality, the roll was to be awarded to Lu Panther, the untalented girlfriend of the theatre's owner, Wildner. After a series of accidents and little disasters, Wildner shuts down the theatre before the Revue can take place. But the Revue's director, Ernst Eder, decides shortly thereafter to present the Revue on an ice skating rink belonging to Liesl's uncle. After a successful run, at first at the Wiener Prater, the performers move on to Spain, Hungary, and a night club with a Jazz orchestra. The Revue becomes a huge success ... and, of course, Ernst and Liesl end up together, too.
Theater director Falke, dressed as a bat, ends up in prison after a merry carnival night. Director Frank only releases him after some time. Falke decides to take revenge on his friend Gabriel von Eisenstein, to whom he owes the whole affair. The annual masked ball at Prince Orlofsky's provides the opportunity. Falke stages a game of mistaken identity in which Eisenstein does not recognize his own wife and courts her, while maid Adele appears as the countess. Eisenstein is duped, Falke has taken his revenge.
Sándor Barinkay joins the gypsies en route to his home village hiding his real identity as an Hungarian nobleman, whose parents were sent to exile. He claims his former properties, now taken by a pig merchant who plays the fool to the villagers' delight. Yet this man has an interesting daughter, and there's also the beautiful gypsy Saffi to consider. And a family hidden treasure to be found.
This music filled biopic follows the life of the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso from childhood poverty in Naples to the beginning of his rise to fame.
The two pigs building houses of hay and sticks scoff at their brother, building the brick house. But when the wolf comes around and blows their houses down (after trickery like dressing as a foundling sheep fails), they run to their brother's house. And throughout, they sing the classic song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?".
Set during the German occupation of Warsaw during WWII, this musical tells the story of several inhabitants of the same tenement house.
Martha Eggerth heads the cast of Casta Diva, but the central character is famed Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, here played by American actor Phillips Holmes. Paying but scant attention the facts, the film concentrates on Bellini's colorful love life. Evidently the film went through several rewriting processes, as witness the curious performances of Donald Calthrop and Arthur Margetson, whose characters do complete about-faces halfway through the story. Amidst so many British accents, Martha Eggerth's Polish intonations seem out of place, but she photographs beautifully and sings quite well. Casta Diva was attractively filmed on location in Naples. Not to be confused with the 1954 remake (by Gallone himself) or to the English language version "The Divine Spark" (also directed by Gallone and starred by Eggerth).
A group of union members, impressed by the First World Festival of Democratic Youth, held in Prague in 1947, decide to found a dance troupe. However, they are looking for someone who can teach them everything they need...
Carmen is a French-Italian musical drama film directed by Christian-Jaque and starring Viviane Romance, Jean Marais, and Lucien Coëdel. It is a version of the famous opera. It was filmed in two versions, French and Italian, with the same screen cast but some different crew, and with Italian voices dubbed in on the Italian version, which have been munged together at IMDb. A third version, with English dubbed under the direction of British actor Noel Howlett, was made subsequently using one of the two (French or Italian) originals for the visual source.
Mickey is trying to lead a concert of The William Tell Overture, but he's continually disrupted by ice cream vendor Donald, who uses a seemingly endless supply of flutes to play Turkey in the Straw instead. After Donald gives up, a bee comes along and causes his own havoc. The band then reaches the Storm sequence, and the weather also starts to pick up; a tornado comes along, but they keep playing.