Another large-budget production (after Despair), Lili Marleen is the melodramatic chronicle of the star-crossed love affair between German cabaret singer Willie (Hanna Schygulla) and Swiss-Jewish songwriter Robert Mendelssohn (Lina Wertmüller stalwart Giancarlo Giannini), who furtively lends his support to a group of German Jews. Based on singer Lale Andersen’s autobiographical novel The Heavens Have Many Colors, the title comes from a song written by Robert that becomes a hit in Nazi Germany after Willie records it. An unabashed tearjerker in the Hollywood vein, this international co-production features American leading man Mel Ferrer as Robert’s formidable father.