Zu Neuen Ufern (aka To New Shores) (1937)

Set in 1846 London, a music hall performer (Zarah Leander) is in love with a self centered and destitute aristocrat (Willy Birgel). When he leaves for Australia after forging a large check, she takes the blame and is sent to prison in the colonies ... in this case, Australia. Based on the novel by Lovis Hans Lorenz and directed by Douglas Sirk (WRITTEN ON THE WIND). This creaky melodrama was a big hit in Germany and pushed Leander into the top tier of the country's film stars. As much as I love Sirk, this movie didn't work for me. It's the kind of movie where the heroine is too good for the weak willed and selfish "hero" yet she pines away for him after taking the hit for a crime he committed. I find such romantic masochism a turn off. Maybe it might have worked better 20 years later when Sirk was at Universal and used his lush Technicolor palette to give it some visual flair, perhaps with Lana Turner or Susan Hayward in the lead. With Viktor Staal and Carola Hohn.