Anni von Aspen dreams of a career as a dancer. Her friend Susi, a showgirl at the revue theatre, is living this dream. But Anni’s aristocratic father will have none of his daughter’s fantasies and sends her off to a girls’ boarding school in London. At least that’s what he thinks. Because Susi becomes Anni, and Anni becomes Susi and joins the Tiller Girls dance group. In this comedy of errors combining elements of jazz, dance and slapstick, Czech film star Anny Ondra shines as the lead character Anni, a charming young woman who holds her own in the nightlife of the big city.

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SAXOPHON-SUSI exemplifies the nature of German popular cinema in the late 1920s, with its diverse production team, international thematic elements, and use of music. […] These multicultural collaborations are well illustrated in SAXOPHON-SUSI, with its international film crew and shooting in several European cities, Berlin, Paris, and London. The team consisted mostly of German artists, including the Berlin-based Haller-Revue troupe, who are referred to in the story as the famous dancers the Tiller Girls from London. The film was a commercial success, and its reach to foreign markets was extended with the production of a sound remake, released in German and French versions under the title BABY. At the film’s premiere run in Berlin it was accompanied by a reportedly witty and amusing original live score (presumed lost) composed by Paul Dessau, supplemented by Rudolf Nelson’s song “Die Susie bläst das Saxophon” (Susie Plays the Saxophone), a jazzy fox-trot with lyrics by the play’s author Hans H. Zerlett. […]

Ondra is radiant in the film. The lively, talented dancer she portrays can be seen as the culmination of the star’s on-screen development (her eccentric dance number is amazing). […] At the peak of her silent film career between 1928 and 1930 Ondra starred in 14 films, and her career continued after the advent of sound (think of Hitchcock’s BLACKMAIL).

Michal Večeřa, Lou Burkart, Pordenone Silent Film Festival catalogue, 2024