Viktor und Viktoria

Viktor und Viktoria

1933. Germany. Directed by Reinhold Schünzel. With Renate Müller, Hermann Thimig, Hilde Hildebrand, Anton Walbrook. This is the operatic first version of what has become a classic comedy of cross-dressing (which was apparently a tolerated Weimar phenomenon). It was remade by Victor Saville in Britain in 1935 as First a Girl, starring Jessie Matthews, and by Blake Edwards in America in 1982 as Victor and Victoria, starring Julie Andrews. Schünzel, who had been directing since 1919, came to America in 1938, where he worked mostly as an actor. Print courtesy of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation. In German; English subtitles. 100 min.