Writing
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The story of Romeo and Juliet, a tale as old as time-- Here, played as farcical lark: A goofy comedy of manners set in a snowy Bavarian village.
Helene, a painter, loses a necklace and takes work as a caricaturist to pay the debt. Not wishing to be recognized, she does the work in a clown costume.
At the age of 50, the surgeon Privy Councillor Professor Imhoff marries the young, beautiful but poor orphan Annie von Arenberg. On the wedding day, the professor's students put on a ceremonial procession. Annie falls in love with the student speaker Baron Bernfeld. After a few months, she leaves her husband for him. Although the professor can hardly bear the defeat, he does not take revenge, but saves her new young lover's life during a complicated surgical operation.
Siles, a wealthy American, devotes all his time to research. When he tests a tincture on himself he discovers his physical appearance has transformed, and that he can transform back with the use of another tincture. Siles decides to take advantage of his transformations and live a double life.
The delightful Johann Strauss comic opera Die Fledermaus was mercilessly lampooned in this truly bizarre production. For starters, a framing device has been added: After appearing in 300 consecutive appearances of Fledermaus (which translates as The Bat) the lead tenor (Georg Alexander) imagines that he's seeing bats everywhere. Driven a bit over the edge by all this, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about the opera, with a group of non-singers cast in the leading roles. The original libretto about romantic assignations, political imprisonments and mistaken identity is burlesqued to the hilt: at one point, the hero finds out that his prison cell is surrounded by rubber tubes!
A romantic skirmish between an intrusive operetta tenor from the Berlin Theater and a revue diva in Barcelona, who later encounters him, initially unrecognized, as a ballet dancer and, after they marry, plays the role of a housewife to cure him of his arrogance and flightiness. He himself is no stranger to deception, but their joint stage finale is not far off.
Sergeant Hans Albers, the terror of Chicago gangsters, is transferred South of the border to deal with bandidos.
The marriage of the celebrated operetta diva Vilma and the chamber singer Peter has come to an end. Peter, however, is intent on winning back his now ex-wife. So he’s come up with the idea of a guest performance in Venice, where the two will both appear. Vilma, however, has already found a new man – Niki. He’s a salesman and she wants to marry him. With the help of Annemarie, a friend, who has won a trip to Venice, Peter succeeds in diverting Niki, for he falls in love with Annemarie. Now the way is free for Peter to win back the ex-wife, who couldn’t care if he lived in a hole six feet underground.
To take a revenge on countess Laura, who slapped him at his proposal, the Governor of the occupied Poland gets her fall in love with a poor student, and exposes him during wedding banquet.
When Bartos, the director of the Odeon variety theater, cancels an artist at short notice, he hires the Terrys out of necessity, whose parents were successful variety artists, but who had not yet received an engagement themselves. Both are supported by Tobs, a friend of their parents. While blonde Mara Terry arrives punctually for the first rehearsal, her dark-haired sister Kora is late like a diva and acts aloof and snippy. At their first performance together the next day, Kora is overtired from partying the night before. During a dangerous act in which she has to balance her upside-down sister on her head, she becomes careless...
The young Schiller, whose heart and soul are writing and poetry, is forced into the military academy (the pride and joy of the Duke of Württemberg). Schiller is disgusted by the everyday routine of the military, always back and forth between breeding and drills. Conversation, conflict or even critique are discouraged – the oppression insufferable for the young rebel. Disgusted by the brutality, he writes his drama "The Bandit", which he would later publish anonymously. But following a frank conversation with the Duke, Schiller is dishonored and must leave the land.
A concert pianist, the romantic idol of many women, is seduced away from his wife. The seductress's husband takes in the pianist's wife, and all four pretend to be happy with the new arrangement.