Luxury Life (Lüküs Hayat) (translated)

Lütfi Ö. Akad directed Lüküs Hayat in 1950, a black-and-white Turkish musical comedy. It is based on the operetta of the same name first staged in 1933, regarded as a landmark of Turkish theatre, with text by Ekrem Reşit Rey and music by Cemal Reşit Rey. Selahattin Küçük and Akad wrote the adaptation; Hürrem Erman produced for Erman Film. The warm reception it won on stage carried over to cinema, and it is counted among the classics of Turkish film.

The story centres on Rıza and Fıstık, two men who live off petty theft. Breaking into a wealthy home, they find themselves in the middle of a costume ball; diamonds stolen at the party tie the plot together. In 1930s Turkey, well-off people eager to imitate the West rub against ordinary folk, and the clash of cultures and classes turns into comedy. Settar Körmükçü plays Rıza, Sezer Sezin is Şadiye, Halide Pişkin is Zeynep and Renan Fosforoğlu is Ruhi; the cast also includes Muzaffer Hepgüler, Yaşar Nezihi Özsoy, Adile Naşit and Hulusi Kentmen.

Made when costume pictures were spreading and cinema had split from theatre, the film is sometimes likened to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby for its portrait of class differences in a modern society.