The reputation of the great Viennese stylist Max Ophuls rests solidly on his last films made in France, Lola Montes (1955), The Earrings Of Madame De... (1953), Le Plaisir (1952), and La Ronde (1950). Least known and appreciated are his pre-war works, made in Germany (until 1933), Italy, Holland, and France: the only reason they are so little discussed is that they are almost impossible to see, at least in this country. Liebelei was Ophuls' last German film, and was released in 1933 without either his name or Schnitzler's on the credits, as both were Jewish. A profoundly pacifistic film, Liebelei was banned not by Goebbels but by the allied censorship board after the war, on the grounds that any treatment of the military should be left on the shelf. Even Siegfried Kracauer, in his study of fascist tendencies in the pre-1933 German cinema, admits Liebelei as a “delightful” film with “strong antimilitaristic feelings.” He reasons that however ill-timed its release, “the public enjoyed the film solely as a love story bathed in the enchanting atmosphere of Imperial Vienna, which would have been unimaginable without its lieutenants.” The story contrasts the tenderness of young love with the severity of the military code of honor. A young lieutenant in love with a sweet Viennese girl is called to account by a baron who believes him to be the lover of the baroness. In reality, the lieutenant has broken off this liaison some time before. Nevetheless the code requires a duel. The lieutenant is killed and the girl throws herself out of the window in a fit of despair. Kracauer points out that “in rendering this terrible triumph of conventional prejudices, the film persistently points at their obsolescence and moral inadequacy.”