In Mozart's Footsteps

A post-Anschluss travelogue of Mozart’s Austria by Lady Dunn

Everyone can agree that Mozart was a clever chap. What is more troubling about this travelogue of his birth city of Salzburg is the way his upbringing is smeared in a folkloric glaze. The swastikas on display on the bridge at the end of the film are the most explicit reminder of the fact that we are in post-Anschluss Austria. The stage-managed presence of traditional costumes are a more implicit one, reminiscent of German propaganda efforts of the period.

Lady Dunn was the second wife of the Canadian industrialist James Hamet Dunn, an avid art collector. Born Irene Clarice Richards, she was a music hall entertainer before marrying first the 11th Marquess of Queensberry, and then Dunn. They divorced in 1942.