When a travelling troupe threatens to unleash a saucy Berlin revue on the provincial town of Emilsburg, the local Morality Society, a band of sanctimonious middle-aged men, stages a protest. Meanwhile, the reigning monarch is concerned that his son and heir is not living his life to the full. Ninon d’Hauteville, a showgirl and the revue’s star attraction, takes a job as piano teacher to the young prince after her engagement at the local theatre was brought to a premature end, a result of the Morality Society’s interference. It doesn’t take long for those hypocrites to get wind of this. While on the outside they appear to be concerned with running the immoral woman out of their town, behind closed doors they rank among the new piano teacher’s most ardent pupils. However, Ninon, out to right the wrong done against her, secretly keeps a “diary” of their visits, recording each encounter on film with a hidden camera.
Acting
Ellen Richter's winking, knowing Ninon owns every frame
Direction
Wolff's sharp eye for hypocrites in their natural habitat
Costume
Berlin revue glamour vs. provincial dowdiness
Director
Willi Wolff
Ellen Richter
Ninon d'Hauteville
Ralph Arthur Roberts
Prof. Wasner
Jakob Tiedtke
Rentier Beermann
Julius Falkenstein
Fürst Emil von Gerolstein
Ferdinand von Alten
Kammerherr von Schmettau
Albert Paulig
Assessor Ströbel
Fritz Greiner
Justizrat Hauser
Harry Halm
Der Erbprinz
Paul Graetz
Polizeischreiber Reisacher
Ernst Hofmann
Dobler
Paul Morgan
Mitglied des Sittlichkeitsvereins
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Weimar cinema loved exposing bourgeois hypocrisy—this came the same year as 'Pandora's Box,' when Berlin was arguably the world's most progressive city.
Director Willi Wolff was a Jewish filmmaker who fled Germany in 1933; this film's gleeful subversion of authority probably didn't help his case with the Nazis.
DE
