A Blonde Dream (German: Ein blonder Traum) is a 1932 German musical comedy film directed by Paul Martin and starring Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch and Willi Forst.[1] A separate English-language version Happy Ever After was made as a co-production with Gainsborough Pictures. A French-language version was also released.
| A Blonde Dream | |
|---|---|
 German film poster | |
| German | Ein blonder Traum |
| Directed by | Paul Martin |
| Written by | Walter Reisch Billy Wilder |
| Produced by | Erich Pommer |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | |
| Edited by | Willy Zeyn |
| Music by | Werner R. Heymann |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | UFA |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art director Erich Kettelhut.
Plot edit
Berlin at the height of the Depression at the beginning of the 1930s. The two window cleaners from the company Blitz-Blank, Willy I and Willy II, cycle back and forth through the big city from job to job, from house to house, with a ladder and washing utensils. They get along brilliantly and only clash when both are interested in the same girl. One day the blonde Jou-Jou enters her life. You see them through the window of the American Consulate General. When Jou-Jou is about to be thrown out of the house by the gruff porter, the two stand by her side as knights.
Jou-Jou, who earns her living as a projectile in a traveling circus, dreams of a film career in America. A Mr. Merryman, rumored to be a major Hollywood mogul, once promised her a Hollywood film career for a fee of $25. The two Willys decide to help the girl. They take her home first so that she and her shaggy mongrel nicknamed Buffalo can have a roof over their heads. Both window cleaners live poorly but happily far from the city gates in the middle of a meadow - in two miserable but wildly romantic railway carriages that are looked after by an odd guy called 'Scarecrow'.
Jou-Jou is assigned a discarded express train carriage as his own accommodation. But soon it is unmistakable that both Willy I and Willy II have their eyes on the blond dream. "Scarecrow" warns Jou-Jou that her presence here threatens to severely test the friendship of the two window cleaners. When the girl reads in the newspaper that Mr. Merryman is in Berlin, the decision seems easy and she returns to Berlin. But disillusionment follows, their 'Merryman' was a swindler! But now she suddenly faces the real Mr. Merryman. And he hires Jou-Jou – and only so that he can finally get his peace from her.
Since all this damn hype about Jou-Jou and their dream of making a movie business almost destroyed Willy's friendship for both of them, Willy II bravely steps in front of the real Mr. Merryman and gives him a tongue-in-cheek. Merryman is delighted. He could really use a guy like that who reads others the riot act and keeps annoying visitors away. From now on, Willy II is to give this speech every day as his employee - in three languages! He even releases Jou-Jou for this, who finally sinks into Willy I's arms.
Cast edit
- Lilian Harvey as Jou-Jou
- Willy Fritsch as Willy I
- Willi Forst as Willy II
- Paul Hörbiger as Scarecrow
- Trude Hesterberg as Ilse, the illustrator
- C. Hooper Trask as Charles J. Merryman
- Hans Deppe as Merryman's secretary
- Wolfgang Heinz as Portier
- Barbara Pirk
- Ina von Elben
- Ernst Behmer
- Hugo Döblin
- Ilse Korseck
References edit
- ^ Calhoon, Kenneth Scott, ed. (2001). Peripheral Visions: The Hidden Stages of Weimar Cinema. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-8143-2928-3.
