''The Flower of Hawaii'' (german: Die Blume von Hawaii) is a 1933 German musical film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Mártha Eggerth and

Iván Petrovich Iván Petrovich ( sr, Иван Петровић, Ivan Petrović; 1 January 1894 – 18 October 1962) was a Serbian film actor and singer. He was the first actor from Yugoslavia to have a successful international movie career. Petrovich mainly w ...

. The film was shot at the

Tempelhof Studios The Tempelhof Studios are a film studio located in Tempelhof in the German capital of Berlin. They were founded in 1912, during the silent era, by German film pioneer Alfred Duskes, who built a glass-roofed studio on the site with financial bac ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

with sets designed by the art director

Franz Schroedter Franz Schroedter (9 May 1897 – 14 November 1968) was a German art director.Giesen p.212 Selected filmography * '' The Black Count'' (1920) * '' The Dance of Love and Happiness'' (1921) * '' The New Paradise'' (1921) * '' The Queen of Whitechap ...

Location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...

took place on the French Riviera. It is an adaptation of the operetta'' The Flower of Hawaii'' by

Paul Abraham Paul Abraham ( hu, Ábrahám Pál, links=no; 2 November 1892 – 6 May 1960) was a Jewish-Hungarian composer of operettas, who scored major successes in the German-speaking world. His specialty – and own innovation – was the insertion of ...

. The operetta was later adapted again for a 1953 film. It is based on the life of the last Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani.

Plot

Susanne Lamond, who earns her living as a simple cigarette saleswoman in a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, does not know that she is in fact a Hawaiian princess named Laya. The attaché Stone from the United States falls in love with her and follows her when Liberation Movement agents lure her to Hawaii with an alleged offer to perform as an artist. Here, according to the plans of the Hawaiian nationalists, she is to be married to a prince, the pretender to the throne, Lilo Taro. However, US Governor Harrison has other political plans in mind and plans to marry the prince to his niece Bessy to further support US claims to the Pacific Islands. However, Bessy loves Harrison's secretary, Buffy. When the conspirators kidnap Susanne to the old royal castle, where a big wedding ceremony is to take place, Susanne objects. She has long since fallen in love with the smart American and they both want to get married. She renounces all claims to the throne and titles and follows him. Eventually Bessy and Buffy become a couple too.

Cast

Martha Eggerth Marta Eggerth (17 April 1912 – 26 December 2013) was a Hungarian actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Str ...

as Susanne Lamond *

Hans Fidesser Hans Fidesser (12 March 1899 – 22 January 1982) was an Austrian singer and film actor.Goble p.519 Selected filmography * '' The Flower of Hawaii'' (1933) * '' Everything for Gloria'' (1941) * '' The Wedding Hotel'' (1944) * ''In the Temple of ...

as Lilo Taro *

as Captain Harald Stone *

Hans Junkermann Hennes "Hans" Junkermann (6 May 1934 – 11 April 2022) was a German professional racing cyclist who won 35 road races in 18 seasons from 1956 to 1973. He won the German National Road Race in 1959, 1960, and 1961. Biography Junkermann was bor ...

as Governor Harrison * Baby Gray as Bessy *

Ernő Verebes Ernő Verebes (born Ernst Weiss, December 6, 1902 – June 13, 1971) was a Hungarian-American actor who began his career in Hungarian silent films in 1915. During his film career he worked and lived in Hungary, Germany and in the United States. ...

as Buffy, secretary *

Fritz Fischer Fritz Fischer (5 March 1908 – 1 December 1999) was a German historian best known for his analysis of the causes of World War I. In the early 1960s Fischer advanced the controversial thesis at the time that responsibility for the outbreak of the ...

as Jim Boy *

Ferdinand Hart Ferdinand Hart (28 October 1893 in Písek – 12 January 1937 in Prague) was a film actor from Czechoslovakia. Selected filmography * '' The Hungarian Princess'' (1923) * '' The Queen of the Baths'' (1926) * ''You Walk So Softly'' (1928) * '' Und ...

as Kanako Hilo *

Eugen Rex Eugen is a masculine given name which may refer to: * Archduke Eugen of Austria (1863–1954), last Habsburg Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order from 1894 to 1923 * Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke (1865–1947), Swedish painter, art collector, and pat ...

as Kililo *

Carl Auen Carl Theodor Auen (16 February 1892 – 23 June 1972) was a German film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1914 and 1938. Auen was a member of the Militant League for German Culture and also a member of the A ...

as Captain Taylor *

Georg John Georg John (born Georg Jacobsohn; 23 July 1879 – 18 November 1941) was a German stage and film actor. Early life Georg Jacobsohn was born into a Jewish household in Schmiegel, Province of Posen, Imperial Germany. Career John began his c ...

as Chief Priest of Hawaii *

Louis Brody Louis Brody (born Ludwig M'bebe Mpessa; 15 February 1896 – 11 February 1951) was a Cameroonian-born German film actor, musician and showfighter. Brody was born in Douala, in the German colony of Kamerun, now Cameroon. His career began in the 1 ...

Notes

Bibliography

* Klaus, Ulrich J. ''Deutsche Tonfilme: Jahrgang 1933''. Klaus-Archiv, 1988.

External links

* 1930s historical musical films German historical musical films Films of the Weimar Republic Films directed by Richard Oswald Films set in Hawaii Films set in the 1890s Films based on operettas Operetta films German black-and-white films Films scored by Paul Abraham 1930s German films Films shot in France Films set in Paris Films shot at Tempelhof Studios {{Historic-musical-film-stub