As a member of the British Film Institute, I always receive the programme for the annual Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, but I don't recall previously being tempted by any of its offerings. However when I spotted the showing of this recently rediscovered German silent, I was off like a shot. I'm always on the lookout for unknown silent movies and the description of this one sounded remarkable. And yes, it was pretty memorable.
Conceived, produced, probably co-directed, co-written and starring one Reinhold Schunzel (not a name familiar to me but a recognizable face from the 1931 "Threepenny Opera"), the movie is meant to capture the decadence of the Weimar days. Schunzel plays an uptight moral reformer who on his wedding day must also make his maiden speech in parliament. Having spoken out against the evils of drink (his new father-in-law -- Martiny -- is a drink producer) and the moral morass of nightclubs, he discovers that his long lost stepbrother has died and left him a vast sum of money and the nightclub of the title, on the proviso that he spends five hours from 10 pm each evening at the club. So the first elements of humour occur when he must get away from the never-ending wedding reception, deposit his panting bride in his bedroom -- unconsummated of course, and get into the club before the first deadline. He thereafter must keep his "shame" from his new bride and the various moral reformers that call at his flat, despite the continuous arrivals of a red-hot Negro jazz band, a bunch of high-kicking showgirls, and a performing monkey.
While presenting an evocative picture of Weimar nightlife with its art deco decor and wolfish faces that could populate the art of the period, the club is actually pretty discreet with 100% heterosexual clubbers. In fact I was beginning to wonder what this movie was doing at a Gay Film Festival before there was an extended sequence of our hero in drag trying to escape being seen, but subsequently being wooed by his lascivious father-in-law. However this sequence was no more "gay" than other cross-dressing movies like "Some Like it Hot". I know that Schunzel did go on to star in Viktor und Viktoria, the original template for the Julie Andrews/James Garner remake which may or may not explain the earlier film's inclusion here. But never mind, I was delighted to have the opportunity of viewing this droll and ultimately charming comedy.
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1 comment:
There is the oddity that the bride and bride's mother were so related in real life.
Schunzel makes the film, does he not, since the other straight roles could have
been played by almost anyone of the right age and sex. His almost innocent
face conveys the conflict between the delight he has and his morel duty - the
'English schoolgirl' scene where he stifles his enjoyment, for instance - and the
small gestures that fit so well with his dual role (the 'doppelmensch' of the play
on which the film is based).
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