Die Grosse Liebe on AllMovie

In her penultimate film in National Socialist Germany, Swedish diva Zarah Leander plays Hanna Holberg, a Danish chanteuse, who, in platinum wig and a swagger worthy of Mae West, holds all Berlin in her spell -- including, during one special performance, Luftwaffe Lieutenant Paul Wendtland (Viktor Staal), with whom she falls in love. But with the exception of fleeting encounters when Hanna goes to entertain the troops in Paris, the war conspires to keep the lovers apart, she slowly emerging as a woman of substance and he heroically answering the call of duty on the eastern front. As the war drags on, Hanna takes up nursing at a military hospital where one day a severely wounded Paul arrives. Making the most of a bad situation, the lovers agree to live for the moment. Die Grosse Liebe was prohibited by the Allied Board of censorship from being shown on German territory immediately after the war, but was distributed with some editing to the rest of Europe.