The Stars Shine

A young secretary leaves the country and travels to Berlin to seek work as an actress. In a comedy of errors, she is mistaken for a famous dancer, which results in her heading the cast of a star-studded musical. The plot acts as a backdrop for this musical revue film, which includes many German film, sports, and entertainment stars of the 1930s.

Es leuchten die Sterne was a remake of the 1930 Tobis film Die Große Sehnsucht (The Great Yearning), directed by Stefan Szekely, a Hungarian Jew.^[4] The remake was created as a Busby Berkeley-style musical set inside a movie studio,^[5] and featured appearances by numerous stage personalities, athletes, and Tobis Films stars.^[6] Joseph Goebbels was Propaganda Minister and considered entertainment films to be the best type of media with which to convey the political message of the Nazi regime.^[7][8] Es leuchten die Sterne was created, as were many German films of the period,^[9] to act as a propaganda piece promoting the Third Reich as a cultural entity.^[8][10][11]

The film was first released in Germany on 17 March 1938. This was followed by a release in the Netherlands on 29 April, and then in the United States on 20 May as The Stars Shine.^[12] It was released in various countries under different titles: in Belgium as Als de sterren schitteren (Flemish) and as Quand les étoiles brillent (French); in Italy as Brillano le stelle; in Denmark as Funklende stjerner; in Greece as Lampoun t' asteria; in France as Les étoiles brillent and as Vedettes follies; and in the Netherlands as Parade der sterren and Sterrenparade.^[10] The film was released on DVD in its original German version on 21 July 2008 by Warner Home Video.^[2]

Excerpts from the film were shown on German television in 1938, with La Jana present in the studio.^[13]

Featured appearances

• The Stars Shine at IMDb
• Es Leuchten Die Sterne at Allmovie