At That Time (1943)

Original title: Damals
Year: 1943
Runtime: 1 hour, 28 minutes
Country: Nazi Germany
Language: German
Subtitles: English (srt)
Genre: Crime | Thriller

Director: Rolf Hansen

Cast:
Zarah Leander: Vera Meiners aka Gloria O’Connor
Hans Stüwe: Jan Meiners
Rossano Brazzi: Pablo
Jutta von Alpen: Brigitte Meiners
Hilde Körber: Frau Gaspard
Elisabeth Markus: Dr. Gloria O’Connor
Hermann Bräuer: Batejo
Hans Brausewetter: Corbeau
Otto Graf: Dr. Lugeon

Plot/Synopsis:

This is an interesting film as the last one of the war years from Zarah Leander. On one level we might call it a damsel-in-distress chick flick: strong woman gets deeper and deeper in trouble as she lies to her husband about meeting an old friend, gets divorced, emigrates to Switzerland, works as doctor, gets fired for disobeying her boss’s orders, emigrates to Portugal, dances in nightclub, emigrates to some unnamed Latin American country…

On another level it’s a whodunit thriller – murder in the hotel, mysterious woman, false identity, detective work to find out what happened.

It also appears to have had strong influences from Citizen Kane: the flashbacks, told by different people, which bring the story together in bits and pieces (though in ordered time sequence). Other effects remind almost of slapstick films (the train wreck) or expressionism (the symbolism of the stopped, then restarted clock).

Later in the night of the première of the film, Zarah Leander’s villa was bombed and caught fire. She, famously, was drunk because of both the good reception of the film and Champagne from the after-opening-night party. As her villa burned around her, she threw objets, gowns and furs out of the windows urging passers-by to take them. During this mad hour or so, she also let indiscretions about the war escape from her lips. There was a context – her film company UFA had unilaterally changed her contract; she would receive the same pay, but in German marks, not, as hitherto, in Swedish kronor. She had rejected any “political” content in this film. She had also rejected an offer from Goebbels of a large estate in East Prussia in exchange for her Swedish property in preparation for her becoming a German citizen. This snub infuriated Goebbels so much that he publicly dubbed her “an enemy of Germany”. Her fame – and Hitler’s approval of her – protected her. But the years of refusing invitations to Nazi functions, her life in Sweden as an actress in left-wing anti-Nazi revues, her love of the Bohemian lifestyle and its adherents were fast catching up with her. The night of the bombing capped it all. She moved fast. Hours later she was in Sweden and did not return to Germany until some years after the war.

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At That Time (1943)
Uploaded by: dstead