AllMovie

In a change of pace from his gay-activist or otherwise politically in-your-face documentaries and feature films, director Rosa von Praunheim here films a tribute to the lives and careers of three successful woman performers from pre-Nazi Germany who fled to the U.S. when it became clear that things in their home country were beyond repair. After the war, each of them remained in the U.S. and continued actively pursuing their careers, with mixed success. The first is the innovative dancer/actor/choreographer Lotte Goslar, who worked with Mary Wigman in pioneering modern dance, and choreographed productions by Bertolt Brecht. The second woman, Dolly Haas, was a major German movie star. She had a Hollywood contract but the movie moguls never cast her in anything, and she went on to appear on the New York stage before marrying the Broadway caricaturist Al Hirshfield. Lastly, Maria Piscator, who began her career as a dancer and choreographed for Max Reinhardt, founded the Dramatic Workshop at New York's New School with her husband, director Erwin Piscator.