Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne!
{{Short description|1935 film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox film
|name = Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne!
|image = Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne!.jpg
|caption = German film poster
|native_name = {{Infobox name module|de|Nur nicht weich werden, Susanne!}}
|director = Arzén von Cserépy
|writer = {{ubl|Peter Hagen (novel)|Hans Hömberg|Georg Mühlen-Schulte|Gerd Tolzien}}
|starring = {{ubl|Jessie Vihrog|Veit Harlan|Willi Schur}}
|music = Erwin Offeney
Marc Roland
|cinematography = Guido Seeber
|editing = Willy Zeunert
|studio = Cserepy-Tonfilmproduktion
|distributor = Normalton-Film
|released = {{Film date|1935|1|24|df=yes}}
|runtime =
|country = Germany
|language = German
}}
Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne! ({{langx|de|Nur nicht weich werden, Susanne!}}) is a 1935 German drama film directed by Arzén von Cserépy, and starring Jessie Vihrog, Veit Harlan, and Willi Schur.
Plot
The film takes place in the film milieu towards the end of the Weimar Republic against the background of the world economic crisis. The title character Susanne is an unemployed extra who, through an assistant director, finds a supporting role in the kitsch film Love Me in Honolulu. The producers are Jews who are portrayed as greedy and lustful and at the same time run an illegal casino. When a visitor commits suicide, the film producers kidnap Susanne and another actress as a distraction. Georg, Susanne's fiancé, frees the women. Together, they try to prove the guilt of the producers. When the National Socialists seize power, the producers are arrested and Susanne and Georg become a married couple.
Background
The film's sets were designed by the art directors Erich Grave and Karl Vollbrecht. The film offered support to the Nazi Party's anti-Semitic stance by a negative portrayal of the two Jewish film producers. It received strong official backing, and a gala premiere was arranged for its release by Joseph Goebbels. To Goebbels' surprise and disgust, the first night audience booed, once the screening was over. The incident was largely hushed-up, and the film's director Arzén von Cserépy went back to his native Hungary in disgrace and never made another German film.{{cite book |last=Hull |first=David Stewart |url=https://archive.org/details/filminthirdreich0000hull |title=Film in the Third Reich: A Study of the German Cinema, 1933–1945 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1969 |isbn=0520014898 |location=Berkeley, CA |page=69 |lccn=69016739 |url-access=registration}}
The film was a success, however, for the young actress Hilde Krüger. Following this film, she was given the patronage of Goebbels. She was to appear in twenty more films, and went on to be a spy for Germany.[http://www.spiegel.de/einestages/nazi-spionin-hilde-krueger-a-951127.html Verführungskunst war ihre Waffe], Spiegel online, Retrieved 24 July 2016.
Cast
{{Cast listing|
- Jessie Vihrog as Susanne Kirchner
- Veit Harlan as Georg Brinkmann
- Willi Schur as General manager Sally Gold
- Ernst Rotmund as Production manager Archinowitz
- Maly Delschaft as Film diva
- Harry Frank as Film star
- Eugen Rex as director
- Hans Adalbert Schlettow as detective
- Rotraut Richter as Grete
- Ellen Bang as Lilli
- Josef Dahmen as Kurvenkarl
- Heinz Berghaus
- Gerhard Dammann
- Josefine Dora as Aunt Frieda
- Hugo Flink as editor
- Aribert Grimmer as commissioner
- Karl Harbacher
- Max Hochstetter
- Maria Krahn
- Hilde Krüger
- Hermann Picha
- Karl Platen
- Max Ralph-Ostermann as Schmidt - Lawyer
- Carla Rust
- Ernst Albert Schaach as Vice president
- Robert Thiem as Fredy Miller - director's assistant
}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0025582}}
{{Arzén von Cserépy}}
Category:Films of Nazi Germany
Category:Films directed by Arzén von Cserépy
Category:Films about filmmaking
Category:Nazi propaganda films
Category:German black-and-white films
Category:1930s German-language films
Category:German-language drama films
{{1930s-Germany-film-stub}}