''We're Dancing on the Rainbow'' (, ) is a 1952 German-Italian

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

directed by

Carmine Gallone Carmine Gallone (10 September 1885 – 11 March 1973) was an early Italian film director, screenwriter, and film producer, who was also controversial for his works of pro-Fascist propaganda and historical revisionism. Considered one of Itali ...

and

Arthur Maria Rabenalt Arthur Maria Rabenalt (25 June 1905 – 26 February 1993) was an Austrian film director, writer, and author. He directed more than 90 films between 1934 and 1978. His 1958 film ''That Won't Keep a Sailor Down'' was entered into the 1st Moscow In ...

and starring

Inge Egger Inge Egger (27 August 1923 – 5 September 1976) was an Austrian stage actor, stage, television actor, television and film actress. She played the female lead in the 1953 operetta film ''The Rose of Stamboul (1953 film), The Rose of Stamboul''.Go ...

Isa Barzizza Isa Barzizza (22 November 1929 – 28 May 2023) was an Italian actress whose career spanned over 60 years. Life and career Early life Born in Sanremo, Barzizza was the daughter of the conductor and composer Pippo Barzizza. Gianfranco Baldazzi ...

and

Karl Schönböck Karl Schönböck (4 February 1909 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary – 24 March 2001 in Munich, Republic of Germany) was an Austrian actor.

. It was shot at the

Cinecittà Studios Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City) is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios were constru ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and the

Bavaria Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Firs ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and on location around

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

and

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

. 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 ...

Hans Ledersteger Hans Ledersteger (1898–1971) was an Austrian art director who worked for many years in the German film industry. While mainly employed in Germany, he occasionally also worked in other countries such as Italy and his native Austria including on ...

, Ernst Richter and

Gastone Medin Gastone Medin (1905–1973) was a Dalmatian Italian art director.Anile p.132 He worked on more than a hundred and fifty films during his career. Selected filmography * '' Figaro and His Great Day'' (1931) * '' Lowered Sails'' (1931) * ''The Tab ...

Synopsis

In Naples,

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

Gino becomes so distracted by the musical theatre

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre, theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketch comedy, sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural pre ...

troupe staying at his

boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...

that he fails his exam. However Edith, the theatre's secretary, discovers that he has a great talent as a

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

and persuaded her boss to hire him. A tour in Germany launches Gino as a popular star. Edith is in love with the young Italian, but his eye is entirely for the company's

diva Diva (, ) is the Latin word for a goddess. Diva is a name from Roman mythology, and is associated with the nouns divus, diva, which means god, goddess, and the adjective divinius, which means divine or heavenly. It has often been used to refer t ...

soubrette A soubrette is a female minor stock character in opera and theatre, often a pert lady's maid. By extension, the term can refer generally to any saucy or flirtatious young woman. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means " ...

Jeannette. When Gino is wrongly accused of theft it is Edith, rather than the selfish Jeanette, who clears him.

Cast

as Edith *

as Jeannette *

Karl Schönböck Karl Schönböck (4 February 1909 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary – 24 March 2001 in Munich, Republic of Germany) was an Austrian actor.

as Philip *Gino Mattera as Gino *

Siegfried Breuer Siegfried Breuer (24 June 1906 – 1 February 1954) was an Austrian stage and film actor and occasional film director and screenwriter. Biography Born in Vienna, Siegried was the son of Hans Breuer (1868 or 1870–1929), who was an opera sin ...

as Sophokles *

Dante Maggio Dante Maggio (2 March 1909 – 3 March 1992) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 115 films between 1940 and 1975. Born in Naples into a family of actors, Maggio had a turbulent adolescence that led his father to send him in an institute f ...

as Gennaro *

Harry Meyen Harry Meyen (born Harald Haubenstock; 31 August 1924 – 15 April 1979) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 40 films and television productions between 1948 and 1975. In the 1960s he also worked as a theatre director in West German ...

as Grigory *

Ave Ninchi Ave Maria Ninchi (; 14 December 1914 – 10 November 1997) was an Italian supporting actress who played character roles on stage, television, and in over 98 feature films that included '' Tomorrow Is Too Late'' (1949) and Louis Malle's '' M ...

as Donna Rosa *

Giuseppe Varni Giuseppe Varni (born Józef Bruno Winawer) (1902-1965) was a Polish-born Italian stage and film actor.Anile p.135 Selected filmography * ''Oltre l'amore'' (1940) - Il commissario * ''Amami Alfredo'' (1940) - (uncredited) * '' Eternal Melodies ...

as Bachmeier *Arno Ebert as Kriminalinspektor *

Rudolf Schündler Rudolf Ernst Paul Schündler (17 April 1906, in Leipzig – 12 December 1988, in Munich) was a German actor and director. He played "Karl" in ''The Exorcist'' (1973). After finishing the film ''The Nasty Girl'', Schündler died of a heart attac ...

as Kriminalassistent *

Karl-Heinz Peters Karl-Heinz Peters (28 August 1903 – 5 September 1990) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * '' Alarm at Station III'' (1939) * ''Men Are That Way'' (1939) * '' The Governor'' (1939) * '' Enemies'' (1940) * '' Mein Leben für Irlan ...

as Hoteldirektor

References

External links

* 1952 films 1950s musical drama films German musical drama films West German films Italian musical drama films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Carmine Gallone Films directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt Films shot at Cinecittà Studios Films shot at Bavaria Studios Films shot in Naples 1952 drama films Films scored by Renzo Rossellini 1950s melodrama films 1950s German films 1950s Italian films {{Musical-drama-film-stub