ZAUBER DER BOHEME (1936) Just as the B'way musical RENT updated LA BOHEME to '80s lower Manhattan, here's a silly Viennese variant from the mid-'30s starring the soon to be married operatic couple Jan Kiepura & Marta Eggerth, each handsome of face & voice. (Now in her 90s, Eggerth still is.) They made dozens of light musicals before leaving German territories during WWII, but you might recall Eggerth as the star who steals Gene Kelly from Judy Garland in FOR ME AND MY GAL/'42, so it's doubly amusing to note how much Kiepura looked like Kelly. In this far-fetched version, Eggerth's consumptive character is actually cast to sing Mimi, dying on stage for real just as the curtain falls. What an exit! The old print only gives glimmers of the great Franz Planer's cinematography, but it's an interesting treat for canary fanciers.