April, April!

A very pleasant surprise, this UFA-comedy and Sirk's first film. No surprises in the script--apart from the ones intended by the script writers--but a story that is cleverly constructed around the gap of knowledge between the viewer and the characters. The story's central formula (expected visitor does not come, replacement is found, both show up in the end and confusion follows) has been tested before: 'It's a boy' (1933) with Edward Everett Horton, uses a similar procedure with good effect, and there must be other films playing on such character switches. It's simple, but it works.

The acting is generally very good, also in the supporting parts. It is interesting to see some pre-talkies mannerisms, especially in the older actors. The Lampe family and their littleness recalls the Strabel family in Ernst Lubitsch' 'Heaven Can Wait' (1943), also aspiring to social recognition and nobility, and equally unable to disguise their 'industrial' background.

All in all, a very enjoyable film, which in no way announces Sirk's later melodrama's: flippant, light, formulaic perhaps, but fine cinema.