| The Stars Shine | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Es leuchten die Sterne | |
| Directed by | Hans H. Zerlett |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | Helmut Schreiber |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Georg Krause |
| Edited by | Ella Ensink |
| Music by |
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Production company | |
| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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| Country | Nazi Germany |
| Language | German |
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]
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.
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]
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]
Zarah Leander was a Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned Universum Film AG (UFA). Although no exact record sales numbers exist, she was probably among Europe's best-selling recording artists in the years prior to 1945. Her involvement with UFA caused her films and lyrics to be identified as Nazi propaganda. Though she had taken no public political position and was dubbed an "Enemy of Germany" by Joseph Goebbels, she remained a controversial figure for the rest of her life. As a singer, Leander was known for her confident style and her deep contralto voice, and was also known as a "female baritone".
Veit Harlan was a German film director and actor. Harlan reached the highpoint of his career as a director in the Nazi era; most notably his antisemitic film Jud Süß (1940) makes him controversial. While viewed critically for his ideologies, a number of critics consider him a capable director on the grounds of such work as Opfergang (1944).
Nazism made extensive use of the cinema throughout its history. Though it was a relatively new technology, the Nazi Party established a film department soon after it rose to power in Germany. Both Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, used the many Nazi films to promote the party ideology and show their influence in the burgeoning art form, which was an object of personal fascination for Hitler. The Nazis valued film as a propaganda instrument of enormous power, courting the masses by means of slogans that were aimed directly at the instincts and emotions of the people. The Department of Film also used the economic power of German moviegoers to influence the international film market. This resulted in almost all Hollywood producers censoring films critical of Nazism during the 1930s, as well as showing news shorts produced by the Nazis in American theaters.
The Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, also known simply as the Ministry of Propaganda, controlled the content of the press, literature, visual arts, film, theater, music and radio in Nazi Germany.
Die Deutsche Wochenschau is the title of the unified newsreel series released in the cinemas of Nazi Germany from June 1940 until the end of World War II, with the final edition issued on 22 March 1945. The co-ordinated newsreel production was set up as a vital instrument for the mass distribution of Nazi propaganda at war. Today the preserved Wochenschau short films make up a significant part of the audiovisual records of the Nazi era.
Wunschkonzert is a 1940 German drama propaganda film by Eduard von Borsody. After Die große Liebe, it was the most popular film of wartime Germany, reaching the second highest gross.
Max Wilhelm Kimmich, also known as M. W. Kimmich, was a German film director and screenwriter during the first half of the 20th century. He was the brother-in-law of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
Jud Süß is a 1940 Nazi German historical drama/propaganda film produced by Terra Film at the behest of Joseph Goebbels. Considered one of the most antisemitic films of all time, the film was directed by Veit Harlan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eberhard Wolfgang Möller and Ludwig Metzger. It stars Ferdinand Marian and Kristina Söderbaum with Werner Krauss and Heinrich George in key supporting roles.
Women Are Better Diplomats is a 1941 German musical comedy film from the Nazi era. Directed by Georg Jacoby and starring Marika Rökk, Willy Fritsch and Aribert Wäscher. It was based on a novel by Hans Flemming. The film was the first German feature film to be made in colour, and was one of the most expensive films produced during the Third Reich. The film met with a positive public response and was among the most popular German films of the early war years.
I Accuse is a 1941 Nazi German pro-euthanasia propaganda film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and produced by Heinrich Jonen and Ewald von Demandowsky. It was developed to promote the involuntary euthanasia of disabled people conducted through the Aktion T4 mass murder program and to garner public support for the Nazi concept of life unworthy of life.
La Jana was an Austro-German dancer and actress.
Hans Heinz Zerlett was a German screenwriter and film director.
Walter Zerlett-Olfenius was a German screenwriter, who worked on films for UFA, from 1936 until 1945. His most notable project was the 1943 Nazi film about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The film cost four million Reichsmarks.
In German film history, an Überläufer is a film that was in production under the Third Reich but only completed and premiered after the end of the Second World War. The vast majority of Uberläufer films are romantic comedies with no reference to the political and military situation of the time.
Peter Paul Brauer was a German film producer and film director.
The Marriage Swindler is a 1938 German drama film directed by Herbert Selpin and starring Eduard von Winterstein, Viktoria von Ballasko and Kurt Waitzmann. It is sometimes known by the alternative title Die rote Mütze. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Max Knaake and Karl Vollbrecht.
A Prussian Love Story is a 1938 German historical romance film directed by Paul Martin and starring Karl Günther, Hans Nielsen, and Willy Fritsch. The film depicts the love affair between William I and Elisa Radziwill. In the Third Reich the film was banned right after completion because the love affair of Joseph Goebbels and the actress Lída Baarová had become public. It was finally released in 1950 in West Germany.
Fritz Kirchhoff (1901–1953) was a German screenwriter, film producer and director. He was a noted director during the Nazi era, directing film such as the anti-British propaganda thriller Attack on Baku (1942). His 1942 film 5 June, showing the German defeat of France in 1940, was banned by Joseph Goebbels for unclear reasons, although it has been speculated it was to avoid offending the Vichy government. After the Second World War Kirchhoff set up his own production company in Hamburg.
Karl Julius Fritzsche (1883–1954) was a German film producer. He is best known for his role as managing director of the German major studio Tobis Film during the Nazi era.
Herbert Enke Wilhelm Engelsing was a right-wing German Catholic lawyer in Berlin and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime. When the Nazi regime began, Engelsing found himself unable to work in law. Instead he found work in the German film industry, becoming a very successful film producer with Tobis Film. In 1938, Engelsing and his wife Ingeborg became close friends with Libertas and Harro Schulze-Boysen who were part of a resistance organisation against the Nazis. Engelsing maintained a high profile in the film business and low profile in the resistance, but made his mark by introducing many new people into the organisation, brokering deals and providing secure locations for meetings. The couple survived the war and moved to the United States in 1947. Engelsing did not receive permanent residency due to false accusations of being the head of a Soviet sleeper cell.