In West Berlin during the Cold War, a Coca-Cola executive is given the task of taking care of his boss' socialite daughter.
Wild and keen Cold War spoof is fast-paced, and its humor is keen, cynical and - accurate; the cast seems to be enjoying the madness.
Halliwell**: "Back to Ninotchka territory, but this time the tone is that of a wild farce which achieves fine momentum in stretches but also flags a lot in between, teetering the while on the edge of taste."
Maltin****: "Hilarious Wilder comedy...Cagney is a marvel to watch in this machine-gun-paced comedy..."
A German exchange student on his way to Hungary falls in love with a
girl he meets in Budapest. Arriving at his destiny, a small Hungarian
village, he falls for the station master's daughter, who takes his
attention more seriously than he intends. Eventually the two girls find
out about each other, and the student should make a decision...
This movie is a typical example and is considered a classic of the German genre of Heimatfilm.
Therefore the story is deeply steeped in a whole world of shoddiness,
false sentimenality and racial and cultural bias which has made this
genre often unbearable for me to watch. The German student appears to
origin from a superior culture, and the Hungarian people are colourful
and lovable for all their fallacies, but are also shown as backward,
unreliable and lazy, and more interested in wine, drink and dance than in
anything 'substantial'. Likewise, this German student is actually just
having a summer affair between his studies, a forgivable 'adventure'
before he becomes a full member of the hard-working German
'civilization'. All through this movie you feel the reverberations of
the Nazi ideology hardly overcome just a decade before this movie was
made. In several scenes I consider the student's behaviour downright
despicable.
But what makes this movie not quite so unbearable as my words above make
it sound is Liselotte Pulver! You quickly forget the falsehood of a
Swiss woman playing a pagan Hungarian girl (with a fake accent on top of
that!), cause she just radiates beauty and a personal naturalness
that's all hers and kind of transcends the blunt cliches of the whole
story. She's also the most complex and therefore realistic character in
the movie, and all throughout you yearn to take her by the hand and free
her from that Aryan imbecile...
