Whose X is better? The main claims to the film, which are made, at least in RuNet - the main character for this role is too old. Yes, of course, the Soviet Mr. X Keblishka with the voice of Malchenko out of competition, this is a brilliant find of the director and so on. And yes, fifty-year-old Mr. X... In defense of Rudolf Schock, let us say that he was first a famous opera singer, in this capacity and was invited, and secondly – as for me, the lyrics he plays with a proper degree of self-irony and “veteran” elegance. So, if you do not take the operetta too seriously, then you can close your eyes to this.
But the undoubted advantage of the film is the circus part - everything is in place here, from clowns and horses to "girls in tights."
The libretto “Circus Princesses” in Russian productions, as you know, was significantly revised. First, the action of the original takes place in Russia. Various absurdities, creating an exotic background for the European viewer, would be too striking here: Countess Fyodor Palinskaya, whom the sultan, that is, the emperor, orders to marry - this is, you will agree, too much; and the director of the circus Stanislavsky - perhaps, too thick trolling, it will all cause a rush rather than laughter.
The second reason - sex in the USSR, as you know, was not, and in general the viewer needed to educate, so a number of points of the original text has undergone changes. So, the aria “Hey, hussar!” turns out to be very frivolous verses: “Girl, lock the windows in the evening and close the doors – in the city of hussars!” And no, Mr. X doesn't sing it, he's not even in the picture. For me, rewrite is harder than write, so the European version has more logic and less sagging. Yeah, Tony's a slacker, and Mabel's a little vulgar, but they're more natural. It is a matter of taste.
The duet of Pelican and the hostess of the hotel in fact also turns out to be a song about the glorious city of Budapest (Kalman clearly liked it more than Vienna) and sings its other characters. However, quite free handling of libretto is an operetta tradition, so there is nothing special here, in the end, we do not play Shakespeare. Two Soviet film versions of all the above changes did not become bad, as did other “localized” operettas.
The German-Austrian television film was first presented on New Year’s Eve, immediately after the chimes, or what they have instead – as for me, the holiday was a success. If you want an operetta, it's her.
8 out of 10