Die gro%C3%9Fe Liebe (1931 film)

Die groe Liebe The Great Love is a 1931 Austrian drama film directed by Otto Preminger, the first of his career. The screenplay by Artur Berger and Siegfried Bernfeld is based on a true story.

Shortly after directing the legal melodrama Voruntersuch Preliminary Inquiry for Max Reinhardts Theater in der Josefstadt, Otto Preminger was approached by industrialist Heinrich Haas, who had an interest in the burgeoning Austrian film industry and thought Preminger might be interested in directing for the screen. Although Preminger knew nothing about filmmaking and had little passion for the medium, he decided to accept the assignment to keep busy during the summer, when the theater was closed. He cast Attila Hrbiger from the Josefstadt company and Viennese musical comedy star Hansi Niese in the lead roles and managed to elicit from them an acting style better suited to the screen than stage. The film was produced by Philipp Hamber, at the time owner of Allianz Film GmbH. Although the film, which opened at the Emperor Theater in Vienna on December 21, 1931, was a critical and commercial success, in later years Preminger described it as a juvenile folly he preferred to forget.

Source: Wikipedia