Spring Parade

Directed by Géza von Bolváry

This Hungarian musical comedy (English title: Spring Parade) was produced by Joseph Pasternak, who later remade the picture in Hollywood as a Deanna Durbin vehicle. The original 1934 version stars Franciska Gaal as a Hungarian serving girl who heads to Vienna to visit a relative. Stopping over at an outdoor carnival, Gaal is told by a fortune teller that she will enjoy a happy marriage with a handsome and wealthy stranger. Later on, she finds herself at a fancy dress ball, where a good-looking aristocrat, assuming that our heroine is a countess masquerading as a peasant, falls in love with her. Delighted that the fortune-teller's prophecy seems to be coming true, Gaal finds herself in a dilemma when she falls in love with poverty-stricken soldier Wolf Albach Retty. But things turn out OK when Retty, the regimental drummer, composes a hit song which brings him fame and fortune, thereby neatly fulfilling that prophecy.