Tales From Vienna Woods

1868. TALES FROM VIENNA WOODS (1937-Ausiria). With MAGDA SCHNEIDEr, WOLF ALBACH-RETTY, LEO SLEZAK. Here is a tune-filled musical romance featuring a snappy soundtrack loaded with music by JOHANN STRAUSS, performed by a talented cast accompanied by the famed VIENNA PHILHARMONIST ORCHESTRA. The story concerns a singing auto mechanic named Graf Rudi Waldheim, who learns that he has inherited a castle. He arrives at what he assumes will be his new home only to discover that it is anything but plush or regal. Rather, it is decaying, with loose doorknobs galore and furniture that literally is falling apart. The castle is also heavily mortgaged, and Waldheim is told that he had best put the property up for sale. Enter a pair of pretty young women, each of whom is not what she seems. The first is Millie Shelfers, a journalist with a working class background, who is posing as a rich girl; the Second is Mary Limford, daughter of a wealthy American manufacturer, who is traveling incognito. The resulting confusion and romantic entangleÂments make for a most charming entertainment. Leo Slezak, father of Walter and an admired operatic tenor and character comedian, steals the film in a major supporting role. He plays a character called Alois Jeremias Schopf, who serves as Waldheim’s trusted companion and advisor. Plus, the film is crammed with lovely panoramas of pre-World War II Vienna, a city described as being “lovelier than Paris or Rome.” In German with English subtitles. 82 minutes. Musical