Sunshine Susie

Sunshine Susie
Animated opening title
Directed byVictor Saville
Written byIstván Békeffy (operetta)
Angus MacPhail
Victor Saville
Franz Schulz
Robert Stevenson
István Szomaházy (novel)
Noel Wood-Smith
Produced byMichael Balcon
StarringRenate Müller
Jack Hulbert
Owen Nares
CinematographyMutz Greenbaum
Edited byIan Dalrymple
Derek N. Twist
Music byPaul Abraham
Production
company
Distributed byIdeal Films
Release date
  • 6 December 1931 (1931-12-06)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Sunshine Susie (also known as The Office Girl[1]) is a 1931 British musical comedy film directed by Victor Saville and starring Renate Müller, Jack Hulbert, and Owen Nares.[1][2] The film was shot at Islington Studios[3] with sets designed by Alex Vetchinsky. It was based on a novel by István Szomaházy. An alternate German-language version The Private Secretary (1931) was made, also starring Renate Müller. The film established Müller as a star in Britain.[4]

Synopsis

A young German woman moves to Vienna to seek work. With the assistance of Herr Hassell, a friendly commissionaire and budding conductor, she gains a job as a typist with a banking firm. Unknown to her, the man she takes to be a lowly clerk with the company who romances her at the local beer garden. is in fact the bank's director.

Cast

Reception

The film was a big hit[5] and was voted the best British film of 1932.[6] Its theme song "Today I Feel So Happy" also became a major hit.[7]

Kine Weekly wrote: "A bright, joyous British musical comedy which moves at an easy swing and allows romance, humour, and song to blend in happy proportions. Although the team work is great, it is Jack Hulbert, in a comedy characterisation, who is the hit of the show. He holds it together, and sees that the entertainment seldom flags."[8]

The New York Times wrote that the film was "not up to the mark set by the Teutonic work, for the studio acoustics appear to be faulty and in several sequences the director, Victor Saville, has failed to have his scenes as adequately lighted," although the reviewer praised the work of Jack Hulbert and Owen Nares, concluding that "Both give clever performances, the result being that this Gainsborough feature makes for quite a good hour or so of entertainment."[9]

The Motion Picture Herald praised the film as having "a sparkle in every foot."[10]

References

  1. 1 2 "Sunshine Susie". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 14 August 2026.
  2. ↑ "BFI | Film & TV Database | Sunshine Susie (1931)". BFI. Archived from the original on 15 January 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2026.
  3. ↑ Wood, Linda (1986). British Films, 1927–1939 (PDF). British Film Institute. p. 73. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2022.
  4. ↑ Bergfelder & Cargnell p.50
  5. ↑ Balcon, Michael (1969). Michael Balcon presents ... a lifetime of films. Hutchinson. p. 55.
  6. ↑ "Sunshine Susie". The Daily News. Perth, WA: National Library of Australia. 19 August 1933. p. 19. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  7. ↑ Shafer p.98
  8. ↑ "Sunshine Susie". Kine Weekly (1286): 32. 10 December 1931. ProQuest 2320710518.
  9. ↑ "MOVIE REVIEW Gayety and Melody. - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 23 March 2023.
  10. ↑ Street, Sarah (6 October 2016). Transatlantic Crossings: British Feature Films in the United States. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781474290685 – via Google Books.

Other film versions

Bibliography

  • Bergfelder, Tim & Cargnelli, Christian. Destination London: German-speaking emigrés and British cinema, 1925–1950. Berghahn Books, 2008.
  • Shafer, Stephen C. British Popular Films, 1929-1939: The Cinema of Reassurance. Routledge, 1997.
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