Lillian Harvey Waltzes Through this Accomplished Musical-Romance of post-Napoleonic Wars Negotiations 

DIRECTED BY ERIK CHARELL/GERMAN/1932

BLU-RAY STREET DATE: FEBRUARY 7, 2023/KINO CLASSICS

Trotting out lavish sets and impeccable wardrobe from start to finish, German director Erik Charell’s musical romance of 1932, Congress Dances (Der Kongreß tanzt), swept audiences off their collective feet not only in its native tongue, but two others as well.  The incisively crafted tale of a Viennese shopgirl’s unlikely pairing with the Tsar of Russia circa 1814 is its super-studio, UFA, marching into the era of sound-on-film with a confident “We’ve still got it! Hottchacha!” assurance.

UFA, after all, was the top studio in the most vibrant national film industry throughout the 1920s.  But with Joseph Goebbels and the Third damn Reich lurking just around the corner, is Congress Dances the last great gasp of German cinema’s greatest era?  Perhaps, perhaps.  But first, UFA will thump its chest with utmost confidence to demonstrate its effective transition from silent film powerhouse to competent maker of talking picture spectacles.  Though its time is quickly waning, it has no idea.

To be sure, Congress Dances is a big fairy tale.  A sex fairy tale, but a fairy tale all the same.  Charell indulges just enough of that vital aspect as to entice but not step over any lines of societal decency.  We see this in the debut moment of Christel (Lilian Harvey), the Viennese glove merchant.  She’s a self-assured lass with no qualms about pushing provocation in the interest of pushing handwear.  For her, customer interaction is all about gently caressing the glove onto the hand, slowly… one finger… at… a… time.  

Meanwhile, across town, the unsexy historic Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 is ramping up.  This prickly political convergence is (as acknowledged by the Blu-ray’s terrific audio commentarian Eddy Von Mueller) a most unusual platform for a musical-romance.  Those hoping to glean facts about how this Congress of Vienna really went down best look elsewhere.  Congress Dances is history without history; a manufactured alternate reality (however unlikely) for our entertainment pleasure.  Somehow, it glides, hitting all its marks and then some.

While conservative political foe Prince Klemens von Metternich (played by Conrad Veidt, perhaps the most remembered member of the film’s all-star German cast) schemes to consolidate power in what they believe to be the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Tsar of Russia (Willy Fritsch) finds himself smitten with the lowly Christel.  Metternich’s plans to nudge his opponent, the Tsar, into the distracting adulterous shopgirl romp (the fact that the Tsar would be married is a detail the film sidesteps… although this is a false history… Hmm…) is muddied as his own assistant, Pepi (Carl-Heinz Schroth), is also in love with Christel.  

For her, though, capturing the eye of the Tsar is everything.  One of the film’s most exhilarating scenes of romantic wish fulfillment, wherein Christel is mocked by her lowly peers for insisting her affair with the Tsar is real, only to then be picked up and swept away in a royal carriage, in part prefigures Nights of Caberia and its musical remake, Sweet Charity.  Long, indulgent waltz sequences of characters known and unknown in the fanciest dress of two centuries ago occupy significant chunks of the film.  It’s Lilian Harvey, though, who owns this movie, playing Christel, longing for her Prince Charming who will make her cares fade away.  She’s just a poor Cinderella…. But will she really ever be a princess someday?

Although there are three count ‘em three variant language versions of this film- German, English, and French, which share talent behind and before the camera (the multilingual Ms. Harvey stars in all three), this Kino Classics disc provides only the native German version.  There is however, as mentioned, a newly recorded excellent and very educational optional audio commentary track.  Eddy Von Mueller, in his wry, deliberately unfolding approach, enlightens us about the state of the arts in Weimar Germany, the “watlzploitation” wave that swept through the country’s films, the purge of filmmakers that was necessitated by Goebbels’ overtaking of the industry, and the specifics of Congress Dances “exquisite absurdity.”

From tavern singalongs to the elaborately recreated Vienna Operahouse, this is UFA going all out to go all in on Viennese culture.  It’s a film that’s cute but ultimately not cute. It’s a film that’s great but ultimately not great.  It’s a film that’s predictable but ultimately not predictable.  It is, however, quite good and a memorable convening in its own right.