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Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne!

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Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne!
German film poster
GermanNur nicht weich werden, Susanne!
Directed byArzén von Cserépy
Written by
Starring
CinematographyGuido Seeber
Edited byWilly Zeunert
Music byErwin Offeney
Marc Roland
Production
company
Cserepy-Tonfilmproduktion
Distributed byNormalton-Film
Release date
  • 24 January 1935 (1935-01-24)
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne! (German: 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

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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

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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.[1]

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.[2]

Cast

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References

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  1. ^ Hull, David Stewart (1969). Film in the Third Reich: A Study of the German Cinema, 1933–1945. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 69. ISBN 0520014898. LCCN 69016739.
  2. ^ Verführungskunst war ihre Waffe, Spiegel online, Retrieved 24 July 2016.
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