French opéra-comique and operetta were omnipresent in the daily life of German operatic culture, cinema, and theater for four critical decades from the 1890s to the 1930s. What values or meanings were given voice by this phenomenon? What characterized its artists, opera producers, film practitioners, and critics? One answer can be found in the film operettas that were produced by UFA in Berlin from 1930-33, with their frivolous plots, and their ambiguous reception from the 1930s to the present.