User Reviews

This is the commentary on the German version. For the English one see Talk about Jacqueline (1942).

Jacqueline, a rich young woman, travels around the world living life her way and doing as she pleases, flirting and leaving when she feels men become too possessive. They follow her but she avoids compromise and jumps into a new adventure. She is on magazine covers and people talk about her, not at all in the same way they do about men who behave just the same. But she does not care. Until she meets a different type of man : doctor Michael Thomas, a reserved researcher just returned from the East. She tries to seduce him, falling in love in the process. When her past is about to be discovered she covers back in her younger sister June. June lives modestly in Paris studying music, and when Jackie feels homesick she visits her. They are fond of each other and June makes her no reprovals. If Jackie chooses to commit and change her life it won´t be easy, but June will be there.

This German version has a complexity lacking in the English one, a deeper lecture. There are moments of comedy, but as the story progresses dramatic sense takes over. It has also a well staged production design; when in England, the ample castle interiors and open hunting grounds contrast with the modest and sheltered June´s apartment in a Parisian quartier on top of many stairs, far enough from the worldly circles Jacq usually moves in, and it is there where her relationship with Michael will develop. A museum sequence is beautifully shot from the top. We see Jacqueline both bewildered then troubled after she dates Michael, her feelings much more clearly shown than in the English version. Vera Engels, an elegant actress, does the type of the sophisticated, determined and seductive woman and gives an emotive performance on the moment of her crucial decision. Albrecht Schoenhals, if somewhat too restrained, also does the type as the doctor (and he was one in real life) is a solid but rigid man. And Sabine Peters as June offers an adequate contrast to her worldly sister, if only a bit too modest for a rich girl (straight blond hair and hardly an evening dress). No wonder she and Michael feel attracted -and that´s another difference to the English version. Also the girls´cousin Leslie has only a bit part here, while in the English version he and his mother help develop the story and the castle sequences have much more importance. Michael´s sternfulness makes Jacqueline increasingly anguished, to a critic point indeed. Her whole life bouleverses because of her new found love (arguable as it may be why she falls in love with this type of man), and only another dramatic shake will be able to settle things again, if it´s not too late...

Relatively unknown Werner Hochbaum was one of the most important German directors of the 1930's, but when this would be your first film of his to watch, you should be aware that this is one of his a weaker ones. It is one of those films you are sure of that it could have been much better. Is it a mediocre film then? No, it is good, but failing.

It is a highly stylized film with beautiful cinematography (including a couple of traveling shots - to and fro- of two people in conversation while walking), ditto lightning and - may be a bit overdone - extraordinary sets. I especially like the one of the street with all those stairs up and down.

But there are problems. After the first part, that is concentrated on romantic comedy and that is very sophisticated and well-paced, the film more or less gets stuck never to get fully going again. Also the film's atmosphere quite abruptly changes from comedy into drama. though the drama is unvoidable and one of the main aspects of the story, the building up to it is less than satisfactory.

There is also a very nasty cut from one scene to another (Jacqueline's visit to the hospital), and then you know they were probably in trouble; why was this not corrected? Things get awkward when near the end we have a totally superfluous scene on a racetrack (including falling and wounded racing cyclists): do we need these boys? It is just there to fill time; the viewer can easily guess where Jacqueline has gone, because this place already played a major role throughout the film.

But then, oh what brilliance again: those two last shots of the film with Sabine Peters, medium close-up looking a bit up at the camera and saying the last lines ("Und vergiss nicht die Klingel ab zu stellen" etc.) and then walking away in the street while the camera slowly lifts up, passing artificial fog and showing the street from above. We sit there with a lump in the troat and the sad knowledge that this kind of poetic atmosphere is what we have been missing the last half hour despite the already mentioned technical brilliance.

The script has a very nice aspect (I do not know the novel used as basis). Here it is the woman Jacqueline who actively conquers the man who at first is not interested at all. She is constantly called Jack and talked of as "Ein feiner Kerl" (a fine chap). Some critics interpret this as introducing a homosexual element. This sounds nice and very modern, but could it not be that Hochbaum on purpose made his women strong and independent; his male characters (like the ex-boyfriend, the pilot) seem in general of a not so strong character.

Hochbaum directs his actors splendid and gets the most out of them, with Wera Engels standing out.