''Victor and Victoria'' () is a 1933 German

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

written and directed by

Reinhold Schünzel Reinhold Schünzel (7 November 1888 – 11 November 1954) was a German actor and director, active in both Germany and the United States. The son of a German father and a Jewish mother, he was born in St. Pauli, the poorest part of Hamburg. Despit ...

, starring

Renate Müller Renate Müller (26 April 1906 – 7 October 1937) was a German singer and actress in both silent films and sound films, as well as on stage. One of the most successful actresses in German films from the early 1930s, she was courted by the N ...

as a woman pretending to be a female impersonator. The following year, Schünzel directed a French-language version of the film titled ''

George and Georgette ''George and Georgette'' (French: ''Georges et Georgette'') is a 1934 German comedy film directed by Roger Le Bon and Reinhold Schünzel and starring Julien Carette, Meg Lemonnier and Anton Walbrook. It is the French-language version of the f ...

'', starring

Meg Lemonnier Marguerite Gabrielle Lemonnier (née Clark; 15 May 1905 – 12 June 1988) was a British-born French singer and film actress. Lemonnier played the female lead in the comedy '' George and Georgette'' (1933).Prawer p.193 Selected filmography * '' ...

and a French cast. In 1935,

Michael Balcon Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in west London from 1938 to 1956. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film ...

produced an English version titled '' First a Girl'', directed by

Victor Saville Victor Saville (25 September 1895 – 8 May 1979) was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954. He also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962. Biography Saville produced his first f ...

and starring

Jessie Matthews Jessie Margaret Matthews (11 March 1907 – 19 August 1981) was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1920s and 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period. After a string of hit stage musicals and films in the mid-1930s, suc ...

and

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 ...

. A West German remake by

Karl Anton Karl Anton or Karel Anton (25 October 1898 12 April 1979) was a Bohemian-born German film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Biography He was born in Prague on 25 October 1898. His father, Wilhelm Anton (1861–1918) was a physician. ...

was released in 1957. In 1982,

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

released ''

Victor/Victoria ''Victor/Victoria'' is a 1982 musical comedy film written and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren, Alex Karras, and John Rhys-Davies. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Maye ...

'', an English-language remake by

Blake Edwards Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump; July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon began writing screenplays and radio scripts ...

. Edwards later based a successful stage musical on the film. Both the film and the musical starred

Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over eight decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...

Plot

Susanne, an aspiring singer, steps in to replace Viktor, a mediocre actor, at a small cabaret in Berlin where he performs as a female impersonator. She catches the attention of an agent, who mistakenly believes that she is actually a man. As a result, Susanne rises to fame, but her situation becomes complicated when she finds herself falling in love with Robert.

Cast

as Susanne / Monsieur Victoria *

Hermann Thimig Hermann Thimig (3 October 1890 – 7 July 1982) was an Austrian stage and film actor. He appeared in 102 films between 1916 and 1967. Biography Thimig came from a famous family of actors. His father, Hugo Thimig, was an actor, director and ...

as Viktor Hempel *

Anton Walbrook Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück (19 November 18969 August 1967) was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom under the name Anton Walbrook. A popular performer in Austria and pre-war Germany, he left Germany in 1936 out of concerns f ...

as Robert *

Hilde Hildebrand Emma Minna Hilde Hildebrand (10 September 1897 – 12 May 1976) was a German actress born in Hanover, Germany on 10 September 1897. She died at the age of 78 in Grunewald, Berlin, on 27 May 1976. Selected filmography * ''Die Scheidungsehe'' ...

as Ellinor *

Fritz Odemar Fritz Odemar (13 January 1890 – 6 June 1955) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1927 and 1955. He was born in Hannover, Germany and died in Munich, West Germany. Odemar's father was the actor Fritz Odemar ...

as Douglas * Friedel Pisetta as Lilian *

Aribert Wäscher Aribert Wäscher (1 December 1895 – 14 December 1961) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * '' The Black Tulip Festival'' (1920) * '' The Graveyard of the Living'' (1921) * '' Slums of Berlin'' (1925) * '' The Hanseatics'' (1925) * ' ...

as F. A. Punkertin, Victoria's agent

Remakes

* 1934: ''

'' (Germany, French language) * 1935: '' First a Girl'' (UK) * 1957: '' Victor und Victoria'' (Germany) * 1975: '' My Girlfriend, the Transvestite (Argentina) * 1982: ''

'' (UK/US) * 1995: ''

'' (TV, US)

Reception

The film was well-received in the German-American community of New York.

References

External links