Today we present you the second part of our tribute to Ufa's biggest star of the 1930s: British-born actress and singer Lilian Harvey (1906-1968). With Willy Fritsch, she formed the 'Dream Team of the European Cinema'. The international success of Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress Dances led Harvey to Hollywood.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6277/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin / Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6278/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder / Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6752/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7140/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7142/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7682/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Fox.


Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1938. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Harvey acted in a handful of films at Fox in 1933.

Hollywood

Before going to Hollywood, Lilian Harvey first appeared in the British romance The Only Girl (Friedrich Hollaender, 1934) with Charles Boyer.

Her Hollywood debut for 20th Century Fox was the film operetta My Lips Betray (John G. Blystone, 1933) with John Boles. Of this film now only rests an incomplete print. It was held back in favour of Harvey's second outing, My Weakness (David Butler, 1933) with Lew Ayres, which, despite its title, was considered a stronger effort.

At AllMovie, Hal Erickson writes: "Clearly inspired by the Lubitsch and Clair musical semi-fantasies then in vogue, My Weakness is replete with rhyming dialogue, talking animals, and even a singing statue of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker. The Buddy G. DeSylva-Leo Robin-Richard Whiting score is largely unmemorable save for 'Gather Lip Rouge While You May', which deserves a gold star for the title alone."

Her last musical for Fox was I Am Suzanne (Rowland V. Lee, 1933). Hal Erickson writes about this film: "International musical-comedy favourite Lillian Harvey is as delightful as ever in the bizarre romantic tunefest I Am Suzanne. In a plotline curiously similar to the much-later Lili, Harvey is cast as Suzanne, a crippled dancer in love with young, self-involved puppeteer Tony (Gene Raymond), who finds it easier to talk to his wooden-headed creations than to human beings. (...) Rowland V. Lee's direction of I Am Suzanne is almost as Germanically symbolic as his later handling of Universal's Tower of London and Son of Frankenstein."

Then she appeared for Columbia Pictures in the romantic comedy Let's Live Tonight (Victor Schertzinger, 1935), co-starring Tullio Carminati. In 1935 she returned to Europe. In Great Britain, she starred in the musical Invitation to the Waltz (Paul Merzbach, 1935), and then she returned to Germany to be with her lover, director Paul Martin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7679/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for My Lips Betray (John G. Blystone, 1933).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7679/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for My Lips Betray (John G. Blystone, 1933).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8001/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8000/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8431/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for I am Suzanne! (Rowland V. Lee, 1933).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8690/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox.

Gestapo

Lilian Harvey returned to the Ufa studios in Schwarze Rosen/Black Roses (Paul Martin, 1935). It was again filmed in three languages: German, French and English.

But not everything was the same as before her years in Hollywood. In her absence, the Nazi regime had come to power in Germany and the Gestapo found out that she still made invitations to her Jewish colleagues.

She came under observation, but she nevertheless made successful Ufa films such as the screwball comedy Glückskinder/Lucky Kids (Paul Martin, 1936) with Willy Fritsch.

She also appeared in the historical musical Fanny Eisler (Paul Martin, 1937) with Willy Birgel, and the comedy Frau am Steuer/Woman at the Wheel (Paul Martin, 1939) again with Willy Fritsch.

When Harvey helped the choreographer Jens Keith to escape to Switzerland this led to an interrogation by the Gestapo. A great part of her fortune that was invested in real estate was confiscated by the Nazis, and Harvey left Germany.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8581/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox (20th Century Fox).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8581/3, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox (20th Century Fox).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8321/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 191/3. Photo: Fox. Lilian Harvey and El Brendel in the musical comedy My Lips Betray/Meine Lippen lügen nicht (John G. Blystone, 1933).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8692/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8227/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9791/2,1934-1935. Photo: Ufa.

Volunteer nurse

In France, Lilian Harvey made her last two films, Sérénade/Schubert's Serenade (Jean Boyer, 1940) with Bernard Lancret as composer Franz Schubert, and Miquette (Jean Boyer, 1940) with Lucien Baroux.

After the occupation of southern France, she emigrated again, now to Los Angeles to work as a volunteer nurse. Since she had done performances for French troop care the Nazi regime withdraw her German citizenship in 1943.

Her former directors and co-workers like Michael Curtiz and Billy Wilder remained social contacts, but her stigma of having been Ufa's biggest star kept her from reigniting her film career. After the war, Harvey returned to Paris. In the following years, she travelled as a singer through Scandinavia and Egypt. In 1949, she returned to Germany and performed on stage.

From 1953 to 1957, she was married to Danish theatre agent Hartvig Valeur-Larsen. She received war reparations in the early 1960s, and she lived on the Riviera. Eventually, her secretary Else-Pitty Wirth became her partner. Lilian Harvey died of liver failure in 1968 in Juan-les-Pins, France.

In 2009 Quentin Tarantino revived one of Lilian Harvey's greatest songs in his film Inglourious Basterds (2009). The hilarious 'Ich wollt' ich wär ein Huhn' (I would like to be a chicken) written by Hans Fritz Beckmann and Peter Kreuder, can be heard on the soundtrack of the film. Harvey sang it with Willy Fritsch in Glückskinder/Lucky Kids (Paul Martin, 1936).


German/British postcard by Eur. Woolworth, no. 4233. Photo: Wengerow & Fulda. Possibly this card refers to Harvey's trip to London to act in Invitation to the Waltz (Paul Merzbach, 1935), her only British film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9602/1, 1935-1936. Photo: British International Pictures (B.I.P.). Publicity still for the British film Invitation to the Waltz (Paul Merzbach, 1935).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9274/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch welcomes Lilian Harvey back in Germany.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 567. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 628. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Dutch postcard, no. 646. Photo: Fox.


British collectors card by Godfrey Phillips and Associated Companies' Cigarettes, no. 20. Photo: British International Pictures (B.I.P.) Publicity still for Invitation to the Waltz (Paul Merzbach, 1935).


Lilian Harvey sings Guten Tag, Liebes Glück (1939) with images of Schwarze Rosen (Paul Martin, 1935). Source: Raiwons (YouTube).


Clip of Ich wollt' ich wär' ein Huhn from Glückskinder/Lucky Kids (Paul Martin, 1936). Source: Sittichfan (YouTube).

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hal Erickson (AllMovie - page now defunct), Mayes (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 24 August 2024.

Ufa's biggest star of the 1930s was British-born German actress and singer Lilian Harvey (1906-1968). With Willy Fritsch, she formed the 'Dream Team of the European Cinema'. Today a post about Harvey's rise to fame in the silent cinema and about her greatest success with the early sound operetta Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress Dances (1931). Tomorrow follows Part 2 about her later triumphs and failures during the Third Reich.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3759/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin. Ross Verlag.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4143/3, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Du sollst nicht stehlen/Thou Shalt Not Steal (Victor Janson, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4538/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5311/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5312/3, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa.


Dutch postcard by N.V. De Faam, Breda. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6735/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.

Dream team

Lilian Harvey was born Helene Lilian Muriel Pape in Hornsey (North London), Great Britain, in 1906. Her mother was English, and her father was a German businessman. When Lilian was eight, they moved to Berlin.

At the beginning of World War I, the family found itself in Magdeburg, and they were unwilling and unable to return to England. She spent much of WW I with an aunt in Solothurn, Switzerland. After the war, she returned to Germany. She studied ballet at the Staatsoper Berlin in 1923 and worked in theatre revues. She assumed her grandmother's maiden name (Harvey) as her professional surname.

In 1924, Harvey received her first screen role as the young Jewish girl Ruth in the silent film Der Fluch/The Curse (Robert Land, 1925). Director-producer Richard Eichberg signed her on, and under his direction, she played her first leading roles in Leidenschaft/Passion (Richard Eichberg, 1925) with Otto Gebühr, and Liebe und Trompetenblasen/Love and Trumpet Blows (Richard Eichberg, 1925) opposite Harry Liedtke.

A year later, she acted for the first time with Willy Fritsch in Die Deutsche Susanne/The Innocent Susanne (Richard Eichberg, 1926), in anticipation of the future 'Dream Team of the European Cinema'.

Harvey appeared in the following years in such silent films as Die tolle Lola/Fabulous Lola (Richard Eichberg, 1927), Eine Nacht in London/A Night in London (Lupu Pick, 1928), and Adieu, Mascotte (Wilhelm Thiele, 1929) with Harry Halm.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 941/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder / Eichberg-Film GmbH.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1826/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Wa-Kie, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1928/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3035/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Eichberg-Film GmbH / Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3543/1, 1928-2929. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3759/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4025/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4039/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4539/3, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa.

The sweetest girl

After many roles in silent films, Lilian Harvey was able to pursue a successful acting career during the initial sound film era of the early 1930s.

Because of her training as a singer and a dancer, Ufa found great use for her in light operettas.

In the hit Liebeswalzer/The Love Waltz (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930) she starred with 'sunny boy' Willy Fritsch, and they became the 'dream couple' of the German cinema.

Fritsch sang in the film the song 'Du bist das süßeste Mädel der Welt', and the press now dubbed Harvey the 'Sweetest Girl of the World'.

Together Harvey and Fritsch would make eleven box office hits, including Hokuspokus/Hocuspocus (Gustav Ucicky, 1930), Die Drei von der Tankstelle/Three Good Friends (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930), and Ein blonder Traum/A Blonde Dream (Paul Martin, 1932).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1394/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Hameister - Eichberg Film G.m.b.H. Publicity still for Liebe und Trompetenblasen/Love and Trumpet Blows (Richard Eichberg, 1925) with Harry Liedtke. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4593/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Adieu Mascotte (Wilhelm Thiele, 1929) with Igo Sym.


German collectors card in the series Sammelwert 'Der Stumme Film' by Ross Verlag, no. 10. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Adieu Mascotte (Wilhelm Thiele, 1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4805/2, 1929-30. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5510/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa. Could be a publicity still for the early sound film Einbrecher/Burglar (Hanns Schwarz, 1930), in which Willy Fritsch is a burglar who gets an affair with a rich and neglected industrial's wife (Harvey).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/2. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/3, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst in Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

Capricious and extravagant operetta

The postcards above show Lilian Harvey as Vienna glove sales lady Christl in Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress Dances (1931), the first and only German film by director Erik Charell. Charell used the Vienna Congress as a background to the real story of Christl, who is causing an uproar because of her unconventional methods of advertising. She throws flower bouquets advertising her shop The Beautiful Shepherdess to all visiting dignitaries as they ride by in their coaches.

This immensely successful film operetta is not only a classic of the early German sound film, showing all the capabilities of the Ufa, but it was also a promising start of a film career that was not to be realized: Charell had to leave Nazi Germany and was unable to continue his career as a film director abroad. Der Kongress Tanzt is not a filmed operetta, but a real film operetta. The cast is great: next to Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch as Tsar Alexander of Russia, Conrad Veidt as the Machiavellian Prince Metternich, Lil Dagover as a glamorous countess, Paul Hörbiger and Otto Walburg are at their best.

Der Kongress tanzt has elegance, wit, beautiful sets, and brilliant music. Lilian Harvey's song 'Das gibt's nur einmal' became an evergreen. In this musical sequence, the heroine rides in a carriage to the castle she has been given by the Tsar. The scene is filmed in long takes where the camera just tracks and tracks and tracks, through the village, through the marketplace, through the fields and then goes on as she walks into the house. A 10-minute masterpiece in its own right.

More than just direct, Erik Charell choreographed the film. Although the film stands on its own feet, the influence of Ernst Lubitsch is evident. Der Kongress tanzt got also English and French versions as would be the case with her subsequent films. In those versions starred Lilian Harvey, but the crew and the rest of the cast were respectively British and French.

These foreign versions were so popular that Lilian Harvey became famous outside of Germany too. At IMDb, Jan Onderwater writes: "Der Kongress tanzt may not be perfect technically, but this is a sensual, made with great fun, original, capricious and extravagant operetta. Some scenes are even a bit bizarre and fetishistic. (...) It is curious that the film was not banned by Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels until October 1937."


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6704/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Hollaender / Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6739/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Lilian Harvey and Henry Garat in Le Chemin du Paradis/The Road to Paradise (Wilhelm Thiele, Max de Vaucorbeil, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 141/6. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Quick (Robert Siodmak, 1932) with Hans Albers. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 181/3. Photo: Ufa. Lilian Harvey and Heinz Rühmann in Ich und die Kaiserin (Friedrich Hollaender, 1933).


Willy Fritsch & Lilian Harvey in Die keusche Susanne (1926). Source: Sittichfan (YouTube).


Lilian Harvey sings 'Das gibt's nur einmal' (Just Once For All Time) in Der Kongress tanzt (1931). Source: Zaychatina (YouTube).

To be continued tomorrow.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Jan Onderwater (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 23 August 2024.