Mother and daughter Swedish actress and singer Tsar Leander was a real superstar of Nazi Germany. Her languid and mysterious look, combined with a deep and expressive voice, made Leander an idol of German viewers, who compared her to Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. The film “Great Love” with the participation of Tsar Leander became the most commercially successful picture of the Third Reich, and some of its tapes were even in the postwar Soviet box office. At the end of World War II, the actress returned to her native Sweden, after which the German press was forbidden to mention her name. But at home, the actress was treated coldly, because in Germany she played in several propaganda tapes. Only five years after the end of the war, she was able to resume her film career, playing the title role in the melodrama Gabriela.
The heroines of King Leander were often singers, which gave her the opportunity to demonstrate her vocal abilities. Here in this picture, her character is the famous singer Gabriela Donat, who performs in a cabaret named in her honor and enjoys noisy success. But one circumstance does not give her peace - an adult daughter Andrea, whom she has long left for the upbringing of her adoptive mother. In the end, motherly love takes precedence over career considerations. Gabriela interrupts performances, breaks up with her lover and returns to Andrea to catch up and get close to her daughter, who has become an attractive girl, estranged from her mother and began a relationship with a young engineer.
German audiences over the years missed their favorite, and Gabriela took third place in box office among all German films of 1950, and also performed well abroad. At the same time, the film itself is quite simple and made according to old recipes, which in the postwar years went out of fashion and did not work as well as before. Subsequent films Kings Leander did not have much success, she lost her former popularity and acted mainly as a singer. Songs in her performance are still sometimes heard on radio stations and television programs about the old cinema.
6 out of 10