''Early to Bed'' is a 1933 British-German

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by Ludwig Berger and starring Heather Angel,

Fernand Gravey Fernand Gravey (25 December 1905 in Ixelles (Belgium) – 2 November 1970 in Paris, France),Death certificate # 8/445/1970 also known as Fernand Gravet in the United States, was the son of actors Georges Mertens and Fernande Depernay, who ap ...

and

Edmund Gwenn Edmund Gwenn (born Edmund John Kellaway; 26 September 1877 – 6 September 1959) was an English actor. On film, he is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in the Christmas film ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947), for which he won th ...

Production

The film was made as a co-production between the German giant

UFA Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the ...

and

Gaumont British The Gaumont-British Picture Corporation produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. It was established as an offshoot of the Gaumont Film Company of France. Film production Gaumont-British was founded in 18 ...

. As was common at the time, the film was made as a multiple-language production with three separate versions modelled on the German original ''

I by Day, You by Night ''I by Day, You by Night'' (german: Ich bei Tag und du bei Nacht) is a 1932 German musical comedy film directed by Ludwig Berger and starring Käthe von Nagy and Willy Fritsch. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios and on location at the Sanss ...

''. ''Early to Bed'' was made at the

Babelsberg Studio Babelsberg Film Studio (german: Filmstudio Babelsberg), located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the second oldest large-scale film studio in the world only preceded by the Danish Nordisk Film (est. 1906), producing films since ...

in Berlin, along with the French and German versions.

Robert Stevenson Robert Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (actor and politician) (1915–1975), American actor and politician * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Stevenson (director) (1905–1986), Engl ...

acted as a supervisor. The casting of the comedian

Sonnie Hale John Robert Hale-Monro (1 May 1902 – 9 June 1959), known as Sonnie Hale, was an English actor, screenwriter, and director. Early life John Robert Hale-Monro was born in Kensington, London, the son of Belle Reynolds and actor Robert Hal ...

in a supporting role, slanted the British version in a more humorous direction than its counterparts.Bergfelder & Cargnelli p.57

Synopsis

A young waiter and a

manicurist A manicurist or nail technician is a person whose occupation is to style and shape a person's nails. This is achieved using a combination of decorating nails with coloured varnish, transfers, gems or glitter. Basic treatments include manicures a ...

share the same room without ever meeting – because she works in the day and he at night. They encounter each other for the first time, and fall in love, without realising that they are already roommates.

Cast

* Heather Angel as Grete *

as Carl *

as Kruger *

as Helmut *

Donald Calthrop Donald Esme Clayton Calthrop (11 April 1888 – 15 July 1940) was an English stage and film actor. Born in London, Calthrop was educated at St Paul's School and made his first stage appearance at eighteen years of age at the Comedy Theatr ...

as Peschke *

Lady Tree Helen Maud Holt (5 October 1863 – 7 August 1937), professionally known as Mrs Beerbohm Tree and later Lady Tree, was an English actress. She was the wife of the actor Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and the mother of Viola Tree, Felicity Tree and Ir ...

as Widow Seidelblast *

Athene Seyler Athene Seyler, CBE (31 May 188912 September 1990) was an English actress. Early life She was born in Hackney, London; her German-born grandparents moved to the United Kingdom, where her grandfather Philip Seyler was a merchant in London. Athe ...

as Frau Weiser * Jillian Sand as Trude *

Leslie Perrins Leslie Perrins (7 October 1901 – 13 December 1962) was an English actor who often played villains. After training at RADA, he was on stage from 1922, and in his long career, appeared in well over 60 films. Hobbies Perrins and wife Violet w ...

as Mayer *

Lewis Shaw Lewis Shaw (1910–1987) was a British people, British actor.BFI , Film & TV Database , SHAW, L ...

as Wolf *

Comedian Harmonists The Comedian Harmonists were an internationally famous, all-male German close harmony ensemble that performed between 1928 and 1934 as one of the most successful musical groups in Europe before World War II. The group consisted of Harry Fromm ...

as Themselves

References

Bibliography

*Bergfelder, Tim & Cargnelli, Christian. ''Destination London: German-speaking emigrés and British cinema, 1925–1950''. Berghahn Books, 2008. *Hardt, Ursula. ''From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's life in the International Film Wars''. Berghahn Books, 1996. *Kreimeier, Klaus. ''The Ufa Story: A History of Germany's Greatest Film Company, 1918–1945''. University of California Press, 1999.

External links

* 1933 films 1933 musical comedy films British musical comedy films German musical comedy films German multilingual films British multilingual films Films directed by Ludwig Berger Operetta films Films shot in Germany Films of the Weimar Republic British black-and-white films Films produced by Erich Pommer Films with screenplays by Hans Székely 1930s romantic musical films Films shot at Babelsberg Studios 1933 multilingual films 1930s English-language films 1930s British films 1930s German films {{romantic-musical-film-stub