Fanfaren der Liebe (1951)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Kurt Hoffmann

Writers:

Michael Logan (story)
Heinz Pauck (writer)

Release Date:

14 September 1951 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Two out of work musicians put on drag to get work in an all girl band. Inevitable comical romantic complications ensue.

Cast

Dieter Borsche	...	Hans Mertens
Inge Egger	...	Gaby Bruck
Grethe Weiser	...	Lydia d'Estée
Georg Thomalla	...	Peter
Oskar Sima	...	Hallinger
Ilse Petri	...	Sabine
Beppo Brem	...	Boxer
Hans Fitz	...	Friedrich
Ursula Traun	...	Anette
Viktor Afritsch	...	Friseur
Herbert Kroll	...	Poehle
Michl Lang	...	Hotelportier Brunhuber
Walter Kiaulehn	...	Oberkellner (as Walther Kiaulehn)
Olly Gubo

Also Known As:

Fanfares of Love (USA) (festival title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | West Germany:12 (nf) | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Filmstudios, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft (NDF)

Movie Connections:

Remade as Some Like It Hot (1959)

Soundtrack:

Laß mich nicht mit Dir allein

The "original" Some Like it Hot, mit schlag!

Someone taped this film from German TV for me and I was stunned to discover just how closely Billy Wilder followed the plot in creating his masterpiece "Some Like It Hot."

Wilder has commented that this film inspired him because it contained a single scene in which a pair of hungry out of work musicians joined an all-girl orchestra.

Not so!

The entire film deals with the two musicians who join an all-girl orchestra. There is a gruff older band leader, a la "Sweet Sue"; a band singer who both men fall in love with; an overnight train ride to a resort in Bavaria; much switching in and out of drag to woo the band singer, and close escapes from being unmasked.

Granted, SLIH is in every way a far funnier and better crafted film. The shift of time frame to Roaring 20s America gives it added energy as well as a period sheen that also comfortably distances the audience from the film's gender-bending humor.

Nevertheless, the two male leads in FANFAREN play 'refined' German ladies of a certain age with great comic timing, then pose as the 'cousin' and 'brother' of their doppelgaengers.

FANFAREN is a low-budget comedy, lacking the star power, production values or memorable music of its Hollywood successor.

Grethe Weiser, who plays the "Sweet Sue" role, was a venerable supporting comic actress who appeared in several of Zarah Leander 1940's spectacles. She alone provides a commanding presence here.

I wish some creative programmer would get a print of this film and screen it with SLIH, so audiences could see the similarities and differences for themselves.