Puerto Rico is all Latin charm and music, with waves breaking on the promenade and lusty dancers for the tourists to admire. Sexy Zarah Leander is moved by a particular tune, La Habanera and swept off her feet by the tall, dark Don Pedro, the local honcho in a semi-feudal island paradise. She's sick of morose Swedes and their antiseptic asceticism. She's especially tired of her old biddy chaperone (Julia Serda) who considers Puerto Rico a swine-pen full of unwashed natives, obscene dancing and barbaric activities like bullfighting.

The political snipes at the U.S.A. are even more pronounced. "Puerto Rico fever" kills hundreds every year, yet nothing is done about it because the corrupt local officials don't want to upset the tourism applecart, or hurt fruit sales to America. As Puerto Rico is in Uncle Sam's backyard, the blame is laid at our doorstep. Everyone keeps mentioning a "Roosevelt medical investigation" nine years before that swept the fever-death issue under the carpet by issuing a worthless serum. The fact that anti-Hitler Roosevelt is attacked by name is proof of the German intentions, considering that nine years previous to 1937, F.D.R. was still three years from becoming President!

The benevolent Swedish doctors have to sneak in like spies and work on the sly in their hotel room to investigate, as the local medicos are under orders to hide any evidence of the killing disease. They perfect a serum overnight in their hotel room, without lab animals or testing, just a microscope.

The unsubtle message is that thanks to American greed, once-romantic Puerto Rico is now a hell-hole ruled by petty aristocrats in an outmoded system. Servants are ordered around cruelly (there's an interesting Rebecca parallel with the house keys that might go somewhere...) and official lies go contrary to the general welfare. Don Pedro is granted a partial defense, that when business dropped from the first scare many more of his miserable peons died from starvation. Astree comes from a sophisticated Nordic culture and is practically being held prisoner ... and Dr. Sven is the logical Sir Galahad to rescue her.

Star Zarah Leander is said to have been the mainstay of German romantic cinema in the absence of Hitler's favorite Marlene Dietrich. She's devastatingly beautiful and shows a wide range, reminding of Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Kay Francis. She's romantic and playful in the opening and a motherly martyr in the middle passages when it looks like her past is going to catch up with her in an unpleasant way.

Ferdinand Marian is excellent as Don Pedro, making the imperious Hispanic seem cold but not totally unsympathetic. Various other Latins are all played by German actors with varying believability - Sven's partner, a Brazilian doctor Gomez is played convincingly by an actor named Boris Alekin!

One logical aspect of this picture is that all the dialogue, even the 'Latin' lyrics of the songs written by Sirk for Lothar Brühne's music, are in German. It's pretty funny hearing sloppy Deutsch dubbed into the mouths of the flamenco dancers, until we reflect on Hollywood's habit of anglicizing every other culture on Earth with English. The only sure Latin in the cast by name is Rosita Alcaraz, the dancer in the stylish opening.

Douglas Sirk's direction is the equal of his fifties pictures. The camera moves gracefully and underscores the appropriate moods of the soapy scenes with expressive images. The (presumably German-shot) interiors are as impressive as Hollywood product, and the sun-drenched Caribbean exteriors have a tropical feel.

Kino's DVD of La Habanera is a good transfer of a sharp-looking print. The audio has some rough sections but is basically intact and easy to follow. As I said above, the review copy prevented me from seeing the last 30 minutes of the show. Unseen chapter headings include La Habanera and Arrests, so there's a musical number (with Leander singing the title song) and political intrigue yet to come before the expected defeat of Don Pedro and the return of the lovers to the relative "civilization" of Europe.

I'd be interested to hear from viewers with good copies, so I can follow up on this review and not leave a final impression of an unplayable title. The movie's too interesting to be abandoned.

Kino's extras show their commitment to quality. Besides Jan-Christopher Horak's essay, there's a Sirk filmography, a photo gallery and excerpts of original German reviews. The attractive packaging has a disclaimer about grain and shakiness in the film element - I only noticed that in one very short scene, in the part of the film that I saw. I don't know if there's more damage at the end.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, La Habanera rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Good
Sound: Good
Supplements: Original German reviews, photo gallery, Sirk filmography.
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: April 27, 2004

3. Note: In Jon Halliday's interview book Sirk on Sirk (Viking 1972), Sirk says the locations were actually shot in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. This would account for the very Spanish hats worn by the Puerto Rican policemen. He also says that Zarah Leander was then the biggest female star in Germany. Halliday compares the (unseen by this reviewer) ending of La Habanera to the end of Sirk's later Imitation of Life.