''Cuba Cabana'' is a 1952 West German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Fritz Peter Buch Fritz Peter Buch (21 December 1894 – 6 November 1964) was a German screenwriter and film director. He worked frequently during the Nazi period, with one of his plays, ''Einmal Mensch'' (''Once a Person'') being performed by the German unit in NY ...

and starring

Zarah Leander Zarah Leander (; 15 March 1907 – 23 June 1981) was a Sweden, Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned UFA GmbH, Universum Film AG (UFA). Althou ...

O.W. Fischer Otto Wilhelm Fischer (, ; 1 April 1915 – 29 January 2004) was an Austrian film and theatre actor, a leading man of West German cinema during the ''Wirtschaftswunder'' era of the 1950s and 1960s. Biography He was born in Klosterneuburg near ...

and Paul Hartmann. It was the second film of an early 1950s comeback for Leander, who had been a major star during the

Nazi era Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. The film was based on a short story of the same title by Tibor Yost.Goble p.514 It was shot at the

Bavaria Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Firs ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and on location in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

and Malga. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Bruno Monden Bruno Monden (1900–1980) was a German art director. He designed the sets for several rubble films in the wake of the Second World War.Shandley p.217 Selected filmography * '' The Stars Shine'' (1938) * '' The Murderers Are Among Us'' (1946) * ' ...

and

Hermann Warm Hermann Warm was a German art director for films. Born in 1889 (died 1976) in Berlin, Germany, Warm was an important figure in the expressionist movement of the 1920s. Warm entered the German film industry in 1912 after working on-stage for a wh ...

Synopsis

In a

South American South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

island country,

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Robby is wanted for murder after his attempt to take

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

s of striking oil workers leads to a brawl involving the chief engineer who later succumbs to an injury. Robby goes to take shelter with Arabella, the owner and headliner of the

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

Cuba Cabana. She has long been the subject of admiration of the

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

, whose police are on the track of Robby. Arabella and the journalist are now lovers, but a deal is brokered in which he is spared the death penalty and is expelled from the country. She remains behind, with the governor now hopeful she will be receptive to his advances.

Cast

as Arabella *

as Robby Tomsen * Paul Hartmann as Gouverneur * Hans Richter as Billy *

Eduard Linkers Eduard Linkers (11 October 1912 – 3 April 2004) was an Austrian actor. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1936 and 1988. Life He was born as Eduard Linker to a family of Jewish descent in Czernowitz, Austria-Hungary. He studied act ...

as Honneg * Karl Meixner as Pandulkar *

Nicolas Koline Nicolas Koline (1878–1973) was a Russian stage and film actor. He established himself in Russia as a stage performer with the Moscow Art Theatre. He emigrated from Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and came to France with La Chauve-Sou ...

as Jose *

Werner Lieven Werner may refer to: People * Werner (name), origin of the name and people with this name as surname and given name Fictional characters * Werner (comics), a German comic book character * Werner Von Croy, a fictional character in the ''Tomb Rai ...

as Pedro *

Peter Elsholtz Peter Ludwig Wilhelm Elsholtz (20 October 1907 – 30 August 1977) was a German stage and film actor.Giesen p.193 Selected filmography * ''Schlußakkord'' (1936) * ''The Castle in Flanders'' (1936) - Lincoln * '' Ride to Freedom'' (1937) - Adju ...

as Polizeikommissar * John Pauls-Harding as Adjutant * Hans Holten as Gomez *

Harald Mannl Harald Mannl (1904–1961) was a German actor of film, radio and television.Feinstein p.56 He also directed two films for DEFA in East Germany in the mid-1950s, and acted in others, before returning to West Germany West Germany was the co ...

as Chefredakteur *

Karl Kreuzer Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cac ...

as Inspizient *

Karl-Heinz Peters Karl-Heinz Peters (28 August 1903 – 5 September 1990) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * '' Alarm at Station III'' (1939) * ''Men Are That Way'' (1939) * '' The Governor'' (1939) * '' Enemies'' (1940) * '' Mein Leben für Irlan ...

as Kriminalbeamter *

Heinz Kargus The Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869 ...

as Filippo *

Willy Rösner Willy Rösner (1893–1966) was a German stage and film actor.Parrill p.131 Selected filmography * '' The King's Prisoner'' (1935) * '' The Monastery's Hunter'' (1935) * '' The Hunter of Fall'' (1936) * ''Frau Sixta'' (1938) * '' Water for Canito ...

as Kapitän *

Gérard Tichy Gerhard Johannes Alexander Tichy Wondzinski (11 March 1920 – 11 April 1992), known as Gérard Tichy, was a German-Spanish actor who appeared in numerous films, including several international productions. Early life Tichy was born Gerhar ...

as Polizei-Oberst

References

Bibliography

* Bruns, Jana Francesca. ''Nazi Cinema's New Women: Marika Roekk, Zarah Leander, Kristina Soederbaum''. Stanford University, 2002. * Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999. * Marshall, Bill & Stillwell, Jeananne. ''Musicals: Hollywood and Beyond''. Intellect Books, 2000.

External links

* 1952 films West German films German drama films 1952 drama films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Fritz Peter Buch Films set in South America German black-and-white films 1950s German films Films shot in Spain Films shot at Bavaria Studios Films scored by Heino Gaze German-language drama films {{1950s-Germany-drama-film-stub