January

If the publicity department of British and Dominions was to be believed, the year could not have got off to a more scintillating beginning, with ‘A Sensational Picture of Gay, Care-Free Budapest. Haunting Music and a Love Story That Will Thrill You’. This seems to have borne little relationship to the bilingual produced and directed by the already prolific Herbert Wilcox, The Blue Danube, having discarded its working titles, Rhapsody and Shuttlecoq. The cast was probably not at fault. Brigitte Helm, a refugee from Fritz Lang’s silent Metropolis, played Countess Gabrielle, to whom Sandor (Joseph Schildkraut) is attracted. He leaves his simple gypsy dancer lover Yutka, played by Wilcox’s then favourite Chili Bouchier (billed here as Dorothy Bouchier), for the Countess, before learning the error of his ways. The screenplay was by Miles Malleson, worked up from a story by Doris Zinkeisen, who frequently designed costumes for Wilcox’s productions.

His idea of a musical film with minimal dialogue was commendable, but the results were generally considered lamentable except by flocking cinemagoers in Sydney, proving that there is no accounting for taste. The MFB (Monthly Film Bulletin) suggested that the film, ‘very dated’, ‘must not be looked on as a typical Wilcox production’, criticising the poor sound and cinematography, but much about The Blue Danube suggests it was typical of his work. The fact that it badly served its three stars – never mind that it also involved the legendary Léonide Massine, partnered by Nikitina – was inexcusable. Helm, Schildkraut (a sort of Hungarian Ivor Novello) and Bouchier had already been teamed for Wilcox’s Carnival the previous year, so must have known what they were in for.