Trivia

Fresh-faced, brunette Viennese singer, dancer and actress of 1930's operettas, musical comedies and romances. Appearing opposite major stars like Heinz Rühmann, Harry Piel and Hans Moser, she often played the 'other woman' or emancipated tomboyish secretaries and travel agents. Lanner eventually married an American industrialist, Roy Frazier Potts, and left Austria before the Anschluß to settle in the United States.

Born Mechthilde Reif in Vienna, after schooling in drama, dance, and singing, Lanner appeared as a singer and dancer in operettas and revues in her native Vienna.

She also played in musicals such as Der letzte Walzer (The Last Waltz Dancer) with Camilla Horn.

After that she got married with an American industrialist and retired from the film business. She went to the USA in 1938 and hadn't to experience the horror of the wartime in Europe vividly.

In her short film career she played lead roles opposite Harry Piel in the impressionistic Artisten (Artists), opposite Hans Söhnker in the drama Herbstmanöver (Autumn Maneuvers), and in Hans Deppe's comedy Meiseken as well as opposite Erik Ode in the comedy Der kühne Schwimmer (The Daring Swimmer), opposite the silent-film star Pola Negri in Paul Wegener's drama Der Weg nach Shanghai (The Road to Shanghai) and opposite Heinz Rühmann in Robert A. Stemmle's comedy Heinz im Mond (Heinz-in-the-Moon).

The actress Susi Lanner experienced a short but successful film career in the 30's. First she made a dance and acting education before she started her film career in 1932.

Shortly before Germany annexed Austria in 1938, she moved with her husband Roy Frazier Potts, an American businessman (Vizepresident of the New-York Overseas Corp.), to the United States and withdrew from her film career.