The first half of this commercial could easily be mistaken for an actuality film. Covering the preparations for a new revue at the newly established Det Nye Teater (The New Theatre) in Oslo, it allows the spectator to follow the famous theatre celebrity Victor Bernau backstage, and visits the costume workshop, where the dancers try on their outfits. The film also shows the elevator-stage being tested and a line of brave chorus girls rehearsing as it rises. Only in the final scene, set high on the roof of the theatre – an intertitle tells us the revue already has Oslo at its feet – is the real aim of the film revealed: everyone’s hard work is rewarded with a treat, as they all relax and enjoy smoking cigarettes. Bernau himself addresses the camera at the end of the film, endorsing Cromwell Turkish Cigarettes.
Victor Bernau (1890-1939) is regarded as the founding father of Norwegian revue. He was involved in more than 50 stage productions, as an actor, director, or both, at several Oslo theatres from the 1910s until his death in 1939. He was the manager of the Chat Noir theatre from 1917 to 1928, and then ran Det Nye Teater for two years, followed by the Scala Teater from 1934 to 1937. Bernau also wrote the lyrics of numerous revue songs, which he performed on stage, and recorded many of them. By 1929, when he appeared in this commercial, Bernau had been a beloved comedian and celebrity on the Oslo stage for almost two decades. Despite his unquestionable popularity with audiences, Bernau’s appearances on the silver screen were rare; his name can be found in the cast of only two feature films, Baldevins bryllup (Baldevin’s Wedding] (George Schnéevoigt, 1926) and Familien på Borgan [The Family at Borgan] (Helge Lunde, 1939).
The source for this DCP is an original tinted nitrate print. It was digitized in 2018.

Tina Anckarman, Magnus Rosborn