AllMovie

Though made in Germany, this film version of Johann Strauss' comic opera Die Fledermaus was distributed in the U.S. by the Russian firm of Artkino. Such full-throated singing personalities as Marte Harell, Johannes Heesters, Willi Dohm and Haus Brauseweiter go through the time-honored paces of the opera's libretto, wherein an upper-class Viennese gentleman simultaneously tries to avoid arrest and to prove his wife's fidelity. Because of running-time restrictions, the audience is denied the pleasure of the original opera's third-act highlight, wherein the participants are invited to sing their favorite operatic arias, whether written by Strauss or not. Happily, the lengthy, largely ad-libbed scene with Frosch the jailer remains intact, with Willi Fritsch bringing down the house as the bibulous Frosch. The Afgacolor process is cleverly deployed throughout, especially in the scene wherein Rosalind (Marte Harell) dyes her hair a flaming red.