The film's sets were designed by the art directors Max Knaake and Julius von Borsody.

Despite its popular success the incoming Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels described it as "terrible rubbish".

[2] Due to their Jewish background a number of those involved with the film, including the director Gerron and star Rainer, left Germany after the Nazi takeover.

Hannes Eckmann, the leader of a Hamburg jazz group heads for Berlin to take part in a competition.

However, when she discovers his real identity as a rival conductor, she believes it is all part of an underhand scheme to sabotage her ahead of the big competition.