W.C. Fields once said, “Never work with children or animals." I guess it's fine to pose with them though, as these cards attest. Not sure if these were actual pets or merely props.

As I mentioned in my first post, in 1933 Lilian got an invitation and contract from Fox to come to Hollywood. She made four films, but abruptly dissolved the contract, walking out on a role that was then filled by then-unknown Alice Faye. She returned to Germany and Ufa in 1935 to be with director Paul Martin, with whom she was romantically involved.

The Fox films themselves weren't big hits, but were generally well received as we can see from the original reviews that appeared in the New York Times. I think for whatever reason (including her romance with Paul Martin), Lilian just didn't fit in the Hollywood film community and grew homesick. Of course, we know that her return to Germany was ill-timed as she ran afoul with the Nazi Regime and actually returned to the states until the war's end.

The Times Reviews (condensed)

My Weakness (1933)
Reviewed September 22, 1933
The vivacious and charming Lilian Harvey, an English actress who has spent several years in Germany, is now to be seen at the Radio City Music Hall in the first of her two Hollywood productions to be released. It happens to be known as "My Weakness," and was produced by B. G. DeSylva. It is a fluffy piece of work with no more of a story than most musical comedies. It is, however, handsomely staged and virtually all the members of the cast contribute highly satisfactory performances, but as the scenes come to the screen it is disappointing to hear so many silly and antiquated jokes and painful puns.

But Miss Harvey's presence atones for most of the shortcomings. She sings and she prances about the various settings in a blithe and happy fashion. And the audience at the first exhibition of this film laughed heartily even over several none too original ideas, such as Looloo Blake (Miss Harvey) falling down several steps and the sudden shrinking of a taxi driver's trousers.

My Lips Betray (1933)
Reviewed November 4, 1933
With crossed fingers and a prayer, the authors of "My Lips Betray" have invented a mythical kingdom for their setting. That was no epochal feat of the imagination, to be sure, but with S. N. Behrman on the dialogue, Lee Garmes on the photography and Lillian Harvey on the screen, even a mythical kingdom ought to be less energetically commonplace than Ruthania. As a romantic comedy, the new film has an unhappy talent for seeming slightly flyblown on the first count and a good deal less than hilarious on the second. In fact, El Brendel, the king's antic chauffeur, raises "My Lips Betray" to its comedy high by addressing his master as "Your Mee-ajesty," and if that is comic, after the sixth repetition, then Miss Harvey's picture is a magnificent and heart-warming adventure.
...A likable and occasionally lyric comedienne, her (Lilian Harvey) efforts to enliven a heavy-handed and humorless script result in a performance stuffed with that particular form of girlish charm which drives strong men to dipsomania and homicide.


I Am Suzanne (1933)
Reviewed January 19, 1934
With the valuable support of Signor Podrecca's marionettes, Lilian Harvey's new picture, "I am Suzanne," which is now at the Radio City Music Hall, succeeds in being quite a fascinating diversion. If its story is inconsequential, the frailties are forgotten when the puppets strut their stuff. Not that Miss Harvey is any less appealing than she has been in other films, or that Leslie Banks, Georgia Caine, Halliwell Hobbes and, in some respects, Gene Raymond, do not contribute their share to the entertainment, but merely that the inanimate cast affords many an opportunity for original touches and delightful streaks of fantasy.

BTW, I found a copy of this film on Ebay and while the print is pretty bad, the film is quite a delight.

The Only Girl - aka Heart Song (1934)
Reviewed June 6, 1934
A quite charming pictorial musical extravaganza, produced under the aegis of the Ufa and Gaumont-British, is now sojourning at the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse. Over here it is known as "Heart Song," but in Britain it was released as "The Only Girl." The feminine players include Lilian Harvey, Mady Christians and Friedel Schuster, and its unimportant romance is cast against a background of the Third Empire.

Out of this frail fable the producers have made a refreshing screen work, with agreeable musical compositions supplied by Franz Wachsmann. Miss Harvey makes the most of her opportunities and Miss Christians is attractive and competent. M. Boyer does fairly well by the part of the Duke.

Lilian Harvey, known at the height of her career as the "sweetest girl of the world", was born Helene Lilian Muriel Pape on January 19th, 1906 in Hornsey, North London. Her mother was English and her father German. At the beginning of World War I they were living in Magdeburg, Germany, and unable to get back to England, Lilian was sent to live with an aunt in Switzerland.

In 1923 she attended the dancing and singing school of the Berlin State Opera and then worked in theater before debuting in her first UFA film "Der Fluch". After several silent outings, UFA found Lilian’s acting, dancing, singing and language skills a perfect fit for the “talkies”. A series of operetta’s, usually co-starring Willy Fritsch, with whom she made 11 films, made them the darling’s of romantic European cinema. These productions were usually made in three different languages at once. The cast would be switched around her for the various takes in German, French and English (Laurence Olivier had his first film role in one of her vehicles).

Her most successful film, 1931's “Congress Dances" led to a contract with 20th Century Fox and Lilian came to Hollywood. Though groomed for stardom here, she wasn’t to become anywhere near the star she was in Europe and after four pictures (more on these in the second post), she returned to Germany and UFA. Unfortunately, the Nazi regime had come to power in her absence and Lilian found it difficult to work under Goebbels. Because she maintained friendships with several Jewish colleagues, she came under observation of the Gestapo and eventually had to flee Germany, losing a great part of her fortune. She went first to France and then back to the United States.

The following appeared in the June 23, 1941 issue of Time.

“Blonde, British-born Cinemactress Lilian Harvey, 34, onetime bright star of German films, hobbled off the Atlantic Clipper on crutches, rattling like a busy bar glass with outsize jewels. She couldn't take any money to speak of out of Europe, but on her neck and hands she wore $100,000 worth of diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, topazes.”

After the second World War she returned to Paris. During the following years, she traveled as a singer through Scandinavia and Egypt. In 1949 she came back to Germany (having renounced her citizenship during the war years) and performed on stage.

Lilian Harvey made 56 films from 1925-1940. She died on July 27, 1968 in Juan-les-Pins, France.