Katharina, die Letzte AKA Catherine the Last 1936 Eng Hard Subs

Director: H. Kosterlitz Cast: Franciska Gaal, Hans Holt, Hans Olden

This film was recently published on YouTube in German without any subtitles by Some day. Here is a version with hardcoded English subtitles.
This 80-year-old Austrian film is a fine example of a comedy which is both witty and fast moving. It has just the right light touch of sentimentality, with hints of opera buffa and a Cinderella-like story about a rakish aristocrat and the lowliest of servant girls. You might find the first minutes a bit confusing but wait until the appearance of Katharina about 17 minutes into the film and you are bound to be drawn in by the superb performance of the diminutive Hungarian born actress Franciska Gaal in this role. She is absolutely captivating and in her way dominates the rest of the film. There are some interesting song numbers in the film, including one by Katharina herself.
This is a well-crafted film without any longueurs which succeeds in entertaining one from the beginning to the end. To my mind it is a match for, and in many ways even superior to, various famous Hollywood comedies from the same period. The director, Hermann Kosterlitz, was German but had to leave his homeland because of his Jewish roots and directed this film in pre-Anschluss Austria in 1936. He later moved to the USA and Hollywood where he changed his name to Henry Koster and became best known for such films as "Harvey", "The Robe" and "Désirée". He is similar to other European directors transplanted to Holly wood (Wilder, Curtiz, Siodmak, Litvak, Sirk, Bernhardt) in the sense that many of their European films from the thirties are often more interesting to see and in some cases superior to their Hollywood films.
In IMDb there is an interesting review by someone who saw this film without subtitles and who, despite not knowing much German, was still able to follow the picture and was mesmerized by the performance of Gall. I hope that this English hard subs version of the film can reach a well-deserved bigger audience. Credit is due to the hard work of the translator who provided the excellent subtitles.