Heymann. When the Nazis took over in January 1933, the Ufa immediately annulled their contract with Charell because of his Jewish descent. They also cancelled all plans for two further contractually agreed upon film projects, one a film operetta based on the Odyssey with Hans Albers in the male lead. Three years later a German court even sentenced Charell to return the 26.000 Reichsmark, which had been paid to him as an advance. When Caravan flopped in the US and internationally, his Hollywood career and all other American film projects came to an immediate halt. The New York Times noted “If lyric loveliness and photographic charm were all a picture needed to keep an audience enthralled, Mr. Charell could be toasted in good tokay this morning, and 'Caravan' could be applauded until the bottle is dry. But the sober fact is that the new film is an exceptionally tedious enterprise”. One of the cancelled projects was a film about ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It would have been an interesting project, since Charell in his dancing days was often compared by the German press to Nijinsky. In 1936, Charell staged a successful Broadway production of White Horse Inn. The New York Times noted that it “involves mountain scenery and hotel architecture, costumes beautiful and varied enough to bankrupt a designer's imagination, choruses that can do anything from the hornpipe to a resounding slap-dance, grand processionals with royalty loitering before the commoners, a steamboat, a yacht, a char-à-banc, four real cows and a great deal more of the same. Indeed, the enthusiasm with which 'White Horse Inn' has been created has virtually transformed the enormous Center Theatre into a Tyrol village”. The Daily Mirror mentioned that “it is difficult to give you an idea of the immensity of 'White Horse Inn'. It is gargantuan. It is the Queen Mary of extravaganzas. […] It boasts acres of settings, hundreds of performers. It is a grand and glittering sight for the eyes.” There was even talk of a film version with Eddie Cantor as the head waiter. (Warner Brothers were co-producers of the Broadway staging.) Spurred by the success of White Horse Inn, Charell adapted Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as a jazz operetta and presented it as Swinging the Dream on Broadway at the Center Theatre in 1939. It was a daring and innovative production, because Charell used only black