Her Grace Commands (1931) User Reviews (2)

The Ups and Downs of a Military Career

[boblipton · 7/10 · 24 December 2010]

Billy Wilder, one of the screenwriters of this Ruritanian comic operetta, was an immense admirer of Ernst Lubitsch. Apparently he kept a sign in his office after he wound up in Hollywood that read "What Would Lubitsch Do?". So when I saw this piece with a lot of plot, staging and effects that reminded me immediately of Lubitsch's THE SMILING LIEUTENANT, I wondered who was stealing from whom.

Well, according to the IMDb this came out three months before the Lubitsch film, so if anyone was the thief, it was Ernst and his screenwriters. And they were all probably stealing from elsewhere.

This is a typical Viennese operetta as a beautiful young princess incognito falls in love with a handsome young lieutenant who is passing himself off as a delicatessen clerk. The usual misunderstandings and tiffs occur, and Willy Fritsch and Käthe von Nagy are quite charming and funny, if a bit weak in the singing department. The two lead comedians are good, particularly Reinhold Schünzel, who reminds me of Herman Bing.

In fact, everyone here reminds me of someone else. Herr Fritsch looks a touch like Ray Milland, Fraulein Nagy a bit like Claudette Colbert. Doubtless it's a matter of types, rather than conscious choices -- at this stage Colbert was just another contract starlet at Paramount and Milland was on the boat from Britain to the US. So the net result is that this is pretty much of a muchness.... but a well done muchness. More than good enough.

This first version of adorable is rather rigid

[cynthiahost · 9/10 · 10 April 2013]

Before I explain anymore lets see what was on the other part of the d.v.d.Now the propaganda news of Die Duetch Waschnau.The Nazis bomb Dunkirk!,they invade Dunkirk!The Nazis wipe out all the British ships and British plains,due to the fact that the British weren't using the Lancaster yet.Thousand of French and British soldier are rounded up to be sent to p.o.w. camp.Drug addicted Hitler visits his soldiers and eats vegetable soup with them.Commercial in glorious a.g.f.a color , possibly the mid or late fifties.Two German puppets, Elves, demonstrate an old fashion square shape washing machine,with old fashion ringer ,by taking two dirty dogs and washing them and drying them with the other old fashion dryer.The company a.g.a. Back to movie.Well may be it's the style ,that might have encourage fox to make the re make more livelier.Kathy Nagy,portraying Prince Marie Kristine, more sexier than Janet Gaynor,pretending to be a manicure pro,meeting Willy Fritsch's Conradi, who pretend t be a owner of a delicatessen, don't kiss each other or express romantic love for a while in the film.Film maker Reinhold Schunzel ,of Ice Follies of 1939 fame, plays plays the state minister,Count Herlitz,I didn't know he was that old .The skating sequence where Conradi And Mitzi goes for their romantic fun,the extras for the skating are not creative neither.They are all skating the same way.i guess you can't blame Germany ,it's Billy wilder style of writing.Any how Adorable was made the year Hitler took over Germany.It was more livelier possibly as Anti Nazi Propaganda,in the U.s.a . Christine brother in this film is more rigid too and wears a dutch bob,played by Kenneth Rive.The best thing about the film is the fact the Comedian Harmonist make an appearance as the cooks.They are more in harmony than the singers in the remake.Well it's still entertaining.I would not hold any breath for your corporate broadcasting classic film channels in the u.s.a. to premier it,since they only serve popular classic only film fans,the enemy of us academic series classic film fans.The print is fair.It's worth getting,if you want to buy it.or just enjoy reading my review of it,which ever.Available at Germanwarfilms.com 4/10/13