Premiere

The Austrian musical Premiere showcases the talents of Swedish stage and screen star Zara Leander. It's a backstage drama with the action equally divided on both sides of the curtain. On opening night of a musical revue in Vienna the backer, who wanted to replace the revue's stars for personal reasons is murdered from the stage,the suspects are the stars. A police officer, who is in the audience starts his investigation backstage trying not to interrupt the show. As Fraulein Leander prepares for opening night, her life is thrown into turmoil by a variety of romantic misadventures. But she manages to show up on stage at the appointed time, scoring a huge success. It was reported that, during the filming of Zara Leander's musical numbers, the audience (ostensibly made up of paid extras) broke into spontaneous applause; when the film premiered in Vienna, the first-night moviegoers did the same. Don't miss the "Busby Berkeley" type numbers throughout and especially at the end - it's wonderful.