Presenting Lily Mars

In the 1920s to the 1950s, due to the rise of sound film and totalitarian regimes in Europe, strange things happened in Hollywood. Some European stars became legends (Marlene Dietrich), others had to return home (Emil Jannings), others squandered their offers (Lída Baarová), but then there was also a specific group of those who were literally raped by the classical Hollywood-style machine (Greta Garbo in her last film, Lilian Harvey in 1933/4, Hugo Haas in the 1950s and Mártha Eggert in the 1940s). For Martha, a pair of war films with Judy Garland (before Lily Mars it was For Me and My Gal) became a refuge in the early years of her emigration. This brilliant star originally from Hungary has dazzled in a number of operetta films in various language productions and now as Isobel Rekay, she has become at least the inspiration for Lily Mars, who was to be Judy Garland's first adult role. The fiasco in Presenting Lily Mars, however, is all the musical theater numbers Garland projects herself into to help her realize her own dream of a musical outlet. There are some strange mixtures of American naive (unwanted?) parodies or the theses of gypsy operetta. So after Lehár's real gems, Mártha has nothing to do, and she just fools around in a nonsensical costume and in the finale and, of course, she congratulates Judy on her own success. The poor real star. (31.01.2011)