''I Kiss Your Hand, Madame'' () is a 1929 sound German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Robert Land Robert Land (1887–1940) was an Austrian-Jewish film director of Moravian descent. Biography Born as Robert Liebmann to a German-speaking Jewish Family in Kroměříž. Land moved to Vienna to study German literature and art history. He started ...

starring

Harry Liedtke Harry Liedtke (12 October 1882 – 28 April 1945) was a German film actor. Early life Liedtke was born in Königsberg, East Prussia as the seventh out of 12 children of a merchant. After his father's death in 1896, he grew up in an orphanage and ...

and

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however, Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both the sound-on-disc and sound-on-film process. It was released in the United States in 1932. It was produced by Super-Film. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Robert Neppach Robert Neppach (2 March 1890 – 18 August 1939) was an Austrian architect, film producer and art director. Neppach worked from 1919 in the German film industry. He oversaw the art direction of over 80 films during his career, including F.W. Mur ...

Plot

Madame Gerard is a divorcee living the high life in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Her current lover is the overweight Percy Talandier but then she meets Count Lerski and sets her sights on him. Then she hears from her ex-husband Adolphe that Lerski is not a count, but works as a waiter.

Cast

as Jacques/Count Lerski *

as Laurence Gerard *

Pierre de Guingand Pierre de Guingand (June 6, 1885 - June 10, 1964) was a French stage and film actor. He portrayed Aramis in the 1921 version of ''The Three Musketeers'' and appeared in another silent swashbuckler ''Fanfan la Tulipe'' in 1925.Rainey p.70 Selecte ...

as Adolphe Gerard *

Charles Puffy Charles Puffy (born Károly Hochstein; 3 November 1884 – 1942 or 1943) was a Hungarian film actor. Biography Hochstein appeared in more than 130 films between 1914 and 1938. He was the only slapstick star in Hungary's silent film era, appeari ...

as Percy Talandier *

Richard Tauber Richard Tauber (16 May 1891, Linz – 8 January 1948, London) was an Austrian lyric tenor and film actor. He performed the tenor role in numerous operas, including ''Don Giovanni'' by Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. Early life Richard Tauber was b ...

as Vocalist

Music

The theme song was entitled "Ich Küsse Ihre Hand Madame" with music by

Ralph Erwin Ralph Erwin (31 October 1896 – 15 May 1943), originally Erwin Vogl, was the Austrian-born French composer of a number of film scores. Career Erwin Vogl was born in Bielitz, in the part of Silesia which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Emp ...

and lyrics by

Fritz Rotter Fritz Rotter (1900–1984) was an Austrian writer and composer.Otte p.246 Along with his brother Alfred he owned several Berlin theatres during the Weimar Republic but, due to his Jewish background, was forced to emigrate following the Nazi rise ...

. The tenor

is heard on the soundtrack singing the theme song. The song became a world-wide hit for that year and was translated and recorded in dozens of languages. The English version was known as "I Kiss Your Hand, Madame."

References

Bibliography

External links