The Stars Shine

The Stars Shine
DVD cover
Es leuchten die Sterne
Directed byHans H. Zerlett
Written by
  • Hans Hannes
  • Hans H. Zerlett
Produced byHelmut Schreiber
Starring
CinematographyGeorg Krause
Edited byElla Ensink
Music by
  • Paul Lincke
  • Ernst Kirsch
  • Leo Leux
  • Franz R. Friedl
  • Mathias Perl
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • 17 March 1938 (1938-03-17) (German theatrical)
CountryNazi Germany
LanguageGerman

The Stars Shine (German: Es leuchten die Sterne) is a 1938 German musical revue directed by Hans H. Zerlett and written by Zerlett and Hans Hannes.[1][2][3]

Synopsis

A young secretary leaves the country and travels to Berlin to seek work as an actress. In a comedy of errors, she is mistaken for a famous dancer, which results in her heading the cast of a star-studded musical. The plot acts as a backdrop for this musical revue film, which includes many German film, sports, and entertainment stars of the 1930s.

Background

Es leuchten die Sterne was a remake of the 1930 Tobis film Die Große Sehnsucht (The Great Yearning), directed by Stefan Szekely, a Hungarian Jew.[4] The remake was created as a Busby Berkeley-style musical set inside a movie studio,[5] and featured appearances by numerous stage personalities, athletes, and Tobis Films stars.[6] Joseph Goebbels was Propaganda Minister and considered entertainment films to be the best type of media with which to convey the political message of the Nazi regime.[7][8] Es leuchten die Sterne was created, as were many German films of the period,[9] to act as a propaganda piece promoting the Third Reich as a cultural entity.[8][10][11]

Release

The film was first released in Germany on 17 March 1938. This was followed by a release in the Netherlands on 29 April, and then in the United States on 20 May as The Stars Shine.[12] It was released in various countries under different titles: in Belgium as Als de sterren schitteren (Flemish) and as Quand les étoiles brillent (French); in Italy as Brillano le stelle; in Denmark as Funklende stjerner; in Greece as Lampoun t' asteria; in France as Les étoiles brillent and as Vedettes follies; and in the Netherlands as Parade der sterren and Sterrenparade.[10] The film was released on DVD in its original German version on 21 July 2008 by Warner Home Video.[2]

Excerpts from the film were shown on German television in 1938, with La Jana present in the studio.[13]

Cast

Featured appearances

References

  1. ^ Hal Erickson (2012). "Es Leuchten Die Sterne (1938)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Es leuchten die Sterne". OnlineFilmdatenbank (in German). 6 October 2003. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  3. ^ "Es Leuchten Die Sterne". Allmovie. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  4. ^ Waldman, Harry (2008). Nazi Films in America, 1933–1942. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7864-3861-7.
  5. ^ McCormick, Richard W.; Guenther-Pal, Alison, eds. (2004). German Essays on Film. Volume 81 of German library. New York: Continuum. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-8264-1507-3.
  6. ^ Hull, David Stewart (1969). Film in the Third Reich: A Study of the German Cinema, 1933–1945. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-520-01489-3.
  7. ^ Goebbels, Joseph (1982). Taylor, Fred (ed.). The Goebbels Diaries 1939–1941 (illustrated ed.). London: H. Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-10893-2.
  8. ^ a b Romani, Cinzia (1992). Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich. New York: Sarpedon. ISBN 978-0-9627613-1-7.
  9. ^ Kreimeier, Klaus (1999). The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918–1945. Volume 23 of Weimar and now Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism (reprint, illustrated ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-520-22069-0.
  10. ^ a b Bock, Hans-Michael; Bergfelder, Tim, eds. (2009). The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-57181-655-9.
  11. ^ Leiser, Erwin (1974). Nazi Cinema. Cinema two (illustrated ed.). New York: MacMillan Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-02-570230-1.
  12. ^ Nugent, Frank S. (21 May 1938). "The Screen". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  13. ^ Winker, Klaus (1994). Fernsehen unterm Hakenkreuz: Organisation, Programm, Personal. Volume 1 of Medien in Geschichte und Gegenwart (in German). Cologne: Böhlau. p. 231. ISBN 978-3-412-03594-5.