Mártha Eggerth

The newsreel series Jornal Português (1938-1951) was produced for the Secretariat of National Propaganda (SPN/SNI) by the "Portuguese Newsreel Society" (SPAC), under the technical supervision of António Lopes Ribeiro. It was conceived and employed as part of the propaganda machinery of Salazar's regime. Screened in cinema theatres prior to the main feature film, each issue of Jornal had approximately ten minutes in length and covered a variety of official government acts, national political news, major sports events and other assorted social and cultural affairs. Jornal Português is not only an indispensable document for the history of Estado Novo's propaganda, but also an unparalleled audiovisual archive of 1940s Portugal.

A group of struggling artists, poets, and musicians struggle to survive in squalor without giving up their artistic ideals.

A prima donna hires a man to pretend to be her lover so as to protect her from an unwelcome suitor. Unbeknownst to her, he is a tenor in disguise.

Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant.

Two vaudeville performers fall in love, but find their relationship tested by the arrival of WWI.

The big revue star Marietta falls in love and gives up the stage career. The theatre stands before the bankruptcy. Only when her husband has convinced himself that she will remain loyal to him, Marietta may go on working. Revue film according to pattern: a lot of music, sturdy situation comic and popular stars.

A French-language remake of Douglas Sirk's "The Court Concert" (1936).

René and his two artist friends lead a meager but careless life in a Parisian small apartment, their main worry being to avoid the housekeeper. Whenever they get some money they call more friends in and celebrate. This is how he meets beautiful but fragile Denise, who wants to be a singer as himself, and they fall in love. Yet when she finds out her real condition she takes a drastic decision which will determine their fates. La Bohème arias, and more.

Before he became cult director Douglas Sirk, Detlef Sierck cut his teeth on such lavish European star vehicles as Das Hofkonzert (The Court Concert). Marta Eggerth is cast as Christine, a young singer who aspires to find out who her father was. Her odyssey brings her to the court of a mythical kingdom, where she is romanced by handsome lieutenant Walter (Johannes Heesters). He is warned not to lose his heart to a "commoner," but all turns out all right when King Serenissimus (Otto Tressler) turns out to be Christine's long-lost daddy. Hofkonzert was designed as a comeback for Marta Eggerth, whose star had eclipsed by the mid-1930s.

Country girl Margit sits for the artist Sándor, from Budapest. She is fascinated and charmed by him, and agrees to accompany him to the capital, so he can complete the painting there. Disillusionment sets in, however, when Sándor wins a prize with the finished portrait and loses interest in her. Margit recognizes that her true happiness lies at home, with Pista, her faithful lover.

A Hungarian squire and his son compete for the favour of an operetta diva; the younger makes the running. - Unplausible mistakes, small intrigues and a lot of love in an old-fashioned musical comedy with proven comedians.

A singer tired of the stage retreats to a hotel in the country. There, she finds love and a way back into show business.

Martha Eggerth heads the cast of Casta Diva, but the central character is famed Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, here played by American actor Phillips Holmes. Paying but scant attention the facts, the film concentrates on Bellini's colorful love life. Evidently the film went through several rewriting processes, as witness the curious performances of Donald Calthrop and Arthur Margetson, whose characters do complete about-faces halfway through the story. Amidst so many British accents, Martha Eggerth's Polish intonations seem out of place, but she photographs beautifully and sings quite well. Casta Diva was attractively filmed on location in Naples. Not to be confused with the 1954 remake (by Gallone himself) or to the English language version "The Divine Spark" (also directed by Gallone and starred by Eggerth).

British musical film directed by Carmine Gallone.

Musical comedy. An opera singer falls for a stowaway on the way to Monte Carlo

Composer Franz Schubert--broke, struggling and unhappy--gets a break when a wealthy friend wangles him an invitation to a command performance in front of a princess of the royal family. Schubert performs a version of his new work, "Symphony in B Minor", for the princess, but a misunderstanding results in Schubert storming out of the concert in a rage. Complications ensue.

Sylva Varescu is an operetta singer performing Kálmán's Die Czardasfürstin through Europe with great success. Before going to Vienna she meets handsome Prinz Weylerstein and they fall in love. Offered a contract for America, she doubts until she finds out that he is already engaged to a countess.

An opera company tries to get an engagement.

A section from the life of composer Franz Schubert as a material for a love story. Also known in English as Gently My Songs Entreat. An English version called Unfinished Symphony would follow in 1934.

An adaptation of the operetta The Flower of Hawaii by Paul Abraham. It is based on the life of the last Queen of Hawaii Liliuokalani.

Out of unlikely circumstances an underground ticket vending girl and a mail pilot fall in love.

A British musical film directed by Victor Hanbury and Ladislao Vajda

Dan Douglas is a typical Scottish. When his niece Evelyne marries engineer Fred Keller aboard the ship to Scotland, he gives her a pearl necklace as dowry, but it's false. The newlyweds face their differences when the necklace gets lost.

Banker Rudi Moebius and his counselor arrive in Wien for an arranged marriage which should solve their financial problems. Only they don't know, but Lucie Weidling is broken too, and in love with Gustl, a musician without the courage to elope. Meanwhile Rudi meets Steffi and falls in love not even knowing her name. He and Lucie become good friends and decide to help each other.

Peter Franke owns Supraphon record company, which has one main competitor in Lyraphon. As a commercial strategy Peter gets engaged to her counter partner Asta, to his assistant Münzer's approval. Then he meets Wally Sommer, singing saleswoman at one of his shops, and all his plans are turned upside down while they both fall in love in this light musical comedy filled with Robert Stolz music.

Diplomat Fürst Windischberg is known for spending too much time with women, receiving frequent reprimands and even a threat to be sent to Afrika. In Berlin he meets chorus girl Hella, who tells her companions she is his current flirt.

Fritz is in love with artist Glay, who stays at the Grand Hotel. In spite of not having any money he gets to know her, invites her to supper and after dancing a tango even hires the royal suite. How will he get out of this is a mystery even to himself.

Harbour policeman Hans and his companion rescue a young woman from water during their night watch, to find out she is connected with a jewel robbery in which a gangster now owner of an hippodrome, an out jailed one and his mistress now mixed up with an American millionaire weave some obscure plans.

Caught by Archduke Max in an embarrassing situation with Marie-Charlote, Captain Rudi is forced into marriage. Yet he approaches actress Josefine, the Archduke's girlfriend, being outright transferred as punishment. Then both girls appear.

The night before his wedding George gets drunk and marries a chorus girl. Her boyfriend appears, they fight and are believed dead, so she is now "the bridegroom's widow" (die Bräutigamswitwe). When they both come back one after another they must hide from the Police as they believe they have murdered each other, while the inspector believes there are ghosts in the house.

György Bánáth landowner and Miklós Vass the teacher, on the verge of collapse, trudging all the way from Siberia where they have spent more than ten years as POWs, trying to prevent each other from falling from fatigue on the way home. Both become regular visitors to the Pálffy family and they both make amorous advances to Katinka, the beautiful daughter of the local vicar.