“In 1937 UFA asked Sirk to turn their new discovery, the Swedish singer Zarah Leander, into a star. Sirk cast her in a period melodrama drawing heavily on the tradition of Weill and Brecht to mix songs and dialogue. Most of the film is set in mid-nineteenth-century Australia, whither Zarah Leander has been consigned by a class-prejudiced British court for an offence committed by her ex-lover, a weak and spendthrift British officer, Sir Albert Finsbury (played by Willy Birgel, the lead in Schlussakkord). With the gifted cameraman Franz Weihmayr in charge of photography, and with a big budget, Sirk here demonstrates the extraordinary range of his talents, particularly in shifting mood and juxtaposing contrasting worlds.”