I Am Suzanne!

I Am Suzanne! is the third of five American films Lilian Harvey made for Fox and Columbia between 1933 and 1934. I Am Suzanne! is a colorfully-tinted melodrama set in Paris and based largely on the projection of the acting performances onto the marionettes they lead. The unhealthily-skinny Harvey is as if embedded in her classical environment, and the script offers her an artistic number in a European-style revue, but with a noticeably American signature. And that's the main problem. The whole misses the point when I Am Suzanne! merely pretends to be set in continental Europe without shedding the mannerisms of a cheap second-rate American production (there's no more compelling reason to make the transition to puppet film than hysterical kitsch). The rest of the cast, led by Gene Raymond and Leslie Banks, only confirms the pervasive cluelessness. On the other hand, I Am Suzanne! counters the traditional left-wing claim that German films could never be equal to American ones. (28/11/2009)