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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you want a straightforward story, run away. Fast. This movie is basically a 90-minute excuse to put people in fancy outfits, shove them onto a stage, and hope for the best. If you enjoy the frantic, slightly unhinged energy of early sound musicals, you’ll probably find this weirdly endearing.
Honestly, watching Heut' kommt's drauf an felt like trying to organize a party in a hurricane. Hans Albers is doing his usual thing, which is being charming enough to make you ignore the fact that the script barely exists.
There is a scene involving The Weintraub Syncopators that is just pure, unadulterated madness. I stopped trying to figure out what was happening and just leaned back. It’s music-hall energy turned up to eleven. Sometimes it feels like the director just pointed the camera at a stage and shouted, "Go!"
The pacing is all over the place. One minute we’re in a serious dramatic beat, and then suddenly there's a chorus line of twenty people doing synchronized movements for no reason. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Emil and the Detectives, though much louder and with way more brass instruments.
Luise Rainer is in this, too. She has this way of looking at the camera that makes you think she knows exactly how silly this all is. She’s definitely the smartest person in the room.
It’s not a masterpiece. It doesn’t even try to be. It’s just a snapshot of a moment in time where everyone was trying to figure out how to make 'talkies' work without losing the joy of the stage. It’s imperfect, it’s noisy, and it’s surprisingly fun if you don't overthink it. 🎷