38 is a 1987 film from Austria directed by Wolfgang Gluck. The film is sometimes also called 38—Vienna Before the Fall, or, in German, 38—Auch das war Wien ("That too was Vienna").
The film is set in, yes, Vienna, Austria, in late 1937 and early 1938. Martin and Carola are, respectively, a playwright and an actress, and they are lovers. Max is trying to get a new play, a light comedy, produced. Carola is getting ready to star in a production of Laurence Schiller's Intrigue and Love, and she is getting offers from the German film industry. They are debating getting an apartment together.
But danger looms. Nazi Germany is just across the border, and Adolf Hitler is threatening to annex Austria in its entirety. The possibility of a Nazi takeover is bad enough for everyone in the performing arts, but it's a mortal threat to Martin, because he is Jewish.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Response: Some slimy Nazis meet with Carola and suggest that she dump her Jewish boyfriend and come to Germany to work. They assure her that they'll set her up and she can play any role that she wants. Carola says she wants to star in Nathan the Wise—a play about a heroic Jew which was banned in Nazi Germany. The conversation ends there.
- Day of the Jackboot: The Nazis roll into Vienna and immediately take over, persecuting Jews in the streets.
- Downer Ending: Martin is arrested by an SS patrol and taken away, presumably to his death.
- Driven to Suicide: Someone—apparently Sovary, Martin's theater friend—shoots himself in a hotel lobby the day after the Nazi takeover. It's probably Sovary as Martin met him in the lobby moments before, but the scene is shot from so far away that it is hard to tell.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: Newsboys hawk a paper about "the chancellor's speech!", that being Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg's March 9, 1938 speech proposing a referendum on Austrian independence.
- Gratuitous English: Martin says that he and Carola have decided not to use their American visas because he doesn't want to see her performing in English. He says "Ich liebe dich!", and then cheerfully translates it to "I love you!" (Not using the visas turns out to be a catastrophic mistake.)
- High-Class Glass:
- Sovary wears one at a restaurant while chatting with the rest of the gang about the impending plebiscite. This marks him off as a rich guy.
- The more sinister variation of this comes when Brandt, who has already made some anti-Semitic comments about Martin, is sporting a monocle when he comes in for rehearsals on the night of the German invasion. He then admits that yes, he is a Nazi.
- Hope Spot: A friendly cab driver offers to drive Martin to a spot on the Czech border where he can just walk over. It seems as if he will meet Carola after all, but later that same day he is arrested.
- It Will Never Catch On: As newly arrived Nazis roam the streets of Vienna, Martin's anti-Nazi cab driver says "They will leave like the Turks." They didn't.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Carola's mother is none too thrilled about her marrying a Jew.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The film ends with Martin being taken away down a Vienna street by some SS goons.
- Say My Name: After Carola goes off onto the train but Martin the Jew isn't allowed on by the Nazis, he dramatically shouts "CAROLA!!!" once as she walks away. He seems to know he won't see her again.
- Spiteful Spit: Martin meets another man going in the opposite direction down a sidewalk. When Martin suggests the other man move, he snarls "Dirty Jew!", and spits at him. Martin, who is not used to such open and naked anti-Semitism, is rattled.
- Title Drop: Martin, Carola, and their friends ring in the New Year with a toast of "Cheers! 38!"
