Flieger, grüß' mir die Sonne! ... Marek Weber & Die 5 Songs (Berlin 1932/4K/Colorized)

Today's video features the legendary song " Flieger, grüß' mir die Sonne" by Marek Weber (1888-1964) and his orchestra with vocals by "Die 5 Songs". The record is a French Disque Gramophone pressing which is in quite battered condition yet plays very well. Interesting to me is the contrast between the "massive sound" of Marek Weber's orchestra and the intimate singing of the vocal quartet. The song was featured in the 1932 sci-fi / action movie "F. P. 1 antwortet nicht" (Lit. F.P.1 is not answering) about a gigantic floating platform in the middle of the Atlantic which allows direct flights between Europe and the USA. The plot and characters from "F. P. 1" can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.P.1 .

The video features sequences from "F. P. 1 antwortet nicht" which have been restored and upscaled to a 4K resolution. They were then colorized (mostly manually using A.I. software). This is purely for entertainment purposes. The colorization is NOT historically correct but the video tries to give an impression of what the sets and costumes may have looked like.

In this video

0:00 - Opening Credits
0:14 - Stars of "F. P. 1 antwortet nicht"
0:48 - Elison (Hans Albers) and Claire Lennartz (Sybille Schmitz) meet
1:11 - Claire learns Elison is leaving her for a new adventure
1:13 - Claire and Droste (Paul Hartmann) become an item
1:20 - F. P. 1 Under Construction and reveal
1:51 - Claire and Droste
1:56 - Claire and Elison meet again
2:03 - Hijacking of F. P. 1
2:13 - Sabotage!
2:34 - Elison and Claire arrive on F. P. 1
2:41 - Elison flies off to save F. P. 1
2:52 - Elison
2:58 - F. P. 1 Saved!

Software used includes:

Topaz Video Enhance
Premiere Pro
Neat Video Plug-in for Premiere Pro
Adobe Photoshop

"F. P. 1 antwortet nicht" was made in a German, French and English version. Multiple-language productions were quite common in the early 1930s. Dubbing and subtitling techniques were still in development as talking pictures were introduced. Fearful of losing important markets, film studios in Hollywood, France and Germany started producing multiple-language versions of their most important movies. German studios turned out to be the most productive and produced these multi versions until 1938.

Allan Gray, whose real name was Józef Żmigrod (1902-1973) composed the music for "F.P.1 antwortet nicht". He was born in Poland and studied under Arnold Schönberg. He started using the alias of Allan Gray (after Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray) when he started composing jazz and stage music (which Schönberg disapproved of). He wrote the music for such classic movies as "Berlin-Alexanderplatz", "Emil und die Detektive" (both 1931). After the Nazis came to power, Gray left Germany and settled in England. He composed many scores for the productions of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The most famous film he scored is probably "The African Queen" (1951) starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. The song "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne" which he wrote for "F.P.1" is his most famous German language composition. Recorded by Hans Albers it became a tremendous success and has been covered many times since 1932.
The "5 Songs" consisted of 4 Hungarian singers: Jozsef Balassa (1st Tenor), Reszö Feleki (2nd Tenor), Imre Révész (Bariton) and Jenö Vig (Bass) and Pal Abel who was the quartet's pianist and arranger. They started out as the "Abels" and made their first recording two months before the Comedian Harmonists. From 1930 onward they changed their to name to "Die 5 Songs" and were considered to be among the best vocal quartets. As part of the group were Jewish, they left Germany in 1933 (as did Marek Weber). (Source: Dicographie der Gesangsinterpreten der leichten Muse von 1925 bis 1945 im deutschsprachigen Raum / Band 1) Marek Weber (1888-1964) and his orchestra with vocals by "Die 5 Songs".

About the record :
Flieger, grüß' mir die Sonne! ...
Marek Weber et son Orchestre avec refrain vocal (Die 5 Songs)

Disque Gramophone
K-6819 / mx. 60-2175 (Electrola master: OD 1343-1)
Berlin, 14-12-1932

The record which is in bad condition was transferred using a Graham Slee Revelation M Phono Preamp (bass Turnover 250 Hz - Rolloff 0) in combination with a Klark Teknik Tube Equalizer. The cartridge and stylus used is an Ortofon Om78. Editing was done in Adobe Audition.