SIUK - Home

Of Mushrooms and Lilac Blossom

Film Versions[1]

The 1933 production of Lilac Time at the Aldwych Theatre brought an offer to Tauber to star in a film of the work for British International Pictures, which was released in 1934. This film version, in a confusing reversal of names, was called Blossom Time. This may well have been because there already was an American film called Lilac Time, produced in 1928, of all years[2]. This film, however, had nothing to do with Schubert - it was a film about a British Pilot (Gary Cooper) falling in love with a French farm girl during WWI. In America Tauber's film was released by MGM as April Romance. It was banned in Germany, of course, but there was a French version, again called Chanson d'amour.

The plot of the film has very little in common with Das Dreimäderlhaus, except for the basic theme of Schubert being unsuccessful in love. Schubert's real friends appear simply in passing. The girl Schubert loves is in love with a soldier, whose proposed wedding has been arranged for him by the Archduchess, as is the regimental tradition. Schubert, of course, sorts it all out so she can marry her soldier. Tauber makes a most convincing Schubert, and the film is little more than a vehicle for him to show off his voice - but what a voice! The film includes a scene where, due to Vogl's indisposition, Schubert steps in to sing at a concert (consiting of Heidenröslein, Frühlingsglaube, Ständchen and Ungeduld) at the last minute. George Clutsam produced some more arrangements and some original music for the film, including its hit, Once there lived a lady fair. Tauber, who went on to compose operettas himself, is credited, along with Clutsam, on the Finale Love Lost Forever, surely the least appropriate words to sing at a wedding!

{short description of image}

Richard Tauber and Jane Baxter in a still from the 1934 film Blossom Time.

Tauber's was not the first film about Schubert, nor even the first film version of Das Dreimäderlhaus. That was a silent (!) film, produced by Richard Oswald, which appeared in 1917. Another silent film 'S Hannerl von der Dreimäderlhaus by Gustav Mayer appeared in 1923. The first Schubert talking film was Leise flehen meine Lieder in 1933, with music from the Vienna Philharmonic. The first film based on Das Dreimäderlhaus with sound was Drei Mäderl um Schubert, directed by E. W. Emo in 1936.

Finally, in 1958 a film called Das Dreimäderlhaus was produced (La casa delle tre Ragazze in Italy), this time directed by Ernst Marischka with Karlheinz Böhm as Schubert, Johanna Matz as Hannerl and Rudolf Schock as Schober. This follows the basic Das Dreimäderlhaus plot with the sort of added excesses you might expect from a film: it starts with Schubert at a concert with Beethoven playing the piano, for example, and opportunities are found for a cameo appearance by members of the Vienna boys choir, and the inevitable singing of Ave Maria. Vogl is a young singer, and it is Diabelli that persuades him to listen to Schubert's music ! There is a nice scene outside the Dreimäderlhaus building on the Mölkerbastei. The film itself is a classical musical in the Sound of Music mould: one where there is plenty of dialogue, and then people suddenly burst out singing for no apparent reason. It is certainly not true to Berté's adaptation: many songs are omitted, or merely hinted at in background music: it gives the impression of being a film of a musical that the audience is expected to already know.

{short description of image}

Advertising poster for the 1958 Ernst Marischka Das Dreimäderlhaus film.

Notes

[1] See the filmography for details of Schubertian films. Also see Friederike Janecka-Jary: "Film" in the Schubert Lexicon, and "Thema mit Variationen: Franz Schubert in Operette, Roman und Film" in Robert Werba: Schubert und die Wiener, Jugend und Volk, Vienna, 1978.
[2] The centenary of Schubert's death.