I have never seen the Blake Edwards 1982 movie starring Julie Andrews, but I was aware of it. I definitely had prior knowledge of its existence when the stage musical adaption hit in the 90s. I think I was always aware that the 1982 movie was a remake but I never knew any details about the original.
Just yesterday I watched First a Girl on Netflix. I didn’t know anything about it. I just felt like watching an old movie that I had never seen before and Netflix doesn’t have too vast an offering of very old movies. This one had 5 stars and was listed as a comedy. That’s what I felt in the mood for, so I hit “Play” without even reading the synopsis. All I knew as I started watching was “1935 Comedy”.
Well, I pretty much loved it right away- Jessie Matthews is a delight and I had never seen her before. As the plot began to unfold, I had that “Ah-HA!” moment and I realized “this must be the original version that the Blake Edwards movie was based on!”
After finishing and loving it, I went to the Wiki page for First a Girl and found out it was not the original (although, it was the first English language version). So, I come looking for experts. How would you rank the various versions of Viktor und Viktoria?
Not a ranking (since I’ve only seen one version), but here is a chronological list:
[ul]
[li]Viktor und Viktoria, 1933 German original version by Reinhold Schünzel starring Renate Müller[/li][li]George and Georgette, 1934 French language version starring Meg Lemonnier that Reinhold Schünzel made more or less concurrently with the German original[/li][li]First a Girl, 1935 British remake by Victor Saville starring Jessie Matthews[/li][li]Viktor und Viktoria, 1957 German remake by Karl Anton starring Johanna von Koczian[/li][li]Mi Novia el Travesti, 1975 Argentine remake by Enrique Cahen Salaberry starring Susana Giménez[/li][li]Victor Victoria, 1982 American/British remake by Blake Edwards starring Julie Andrews[/li][li]Victor/Victoria, 1995 stage musical adaption of the 1982 Blake Edwards movie also by Blake Edwards also starring Julie Andrews[/li][/ul]
I would be very surprised if there’s anyone here who’s seen all seven versions, but I’d think maybe there’d be a couple people who have seen two or three. So, only rank the ones you’ve actually seen.
And if you’ve only seen one (like I have), I’d love to hear your impression of the version that you’ve seen.