Charlotte Krause-Walter

Literary adaptation about the need for the new Germany to have more children.

The delightful Johann Strauss comic opera Die Fledermaus was mercilessly lampooned in this truly bizarre production. For starters, a framing device has been added: After appearing in 300 consecutive appearances of Fledermaus (which translates as The Bat) the lead tenor (Georg Alexander) imagines that he's seeing bats everywhere. Driven a bit over the edge by all this, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about the opera, with a group of non-singers cast in the leading roles. The original libretto about romantic assignations, political imprisonments and mistaken identity is burlesqued to the hilt: at one point, the hero finds out that his prison cell is surrounded by rubber tubes!

Christian Kempenich, a pedantic law firm manager, attends a christening in Cologne, leading to a boozy night. He wakes up in a stranger’s bed and is accused of stealing bed linen from the hotel. Meanwhile, his wife Hedwig had her own fling and wants to keep it secret. When she learns of Christian’s predicament, she reveals her affair during a heated discussion. Realising their marriage is at risk, they decide to work on their relationship.

Sylvia, the daughter of the pastor Kelvil, is lectrice to Lady Patricia and gets to know the young Lord Harford. They love one another, but their class differences forbid marriage. There's a sharp argument with the father, who afterwards wants to send the young lord abroad. Then Sylvia is offered money to disappear, unaware that she's already pregnant. 18 years later: Sylvia raised her son on her own as best she could. He is now known as Lord Harford, who, besides having the title Lord Illingworth, also has inherited his father's total estate and has now returned from India. Unaware of their identities, the father and son get to know one another; get into a fight; and the young man challenges the father to a duel. In order to prevent that from happening, the mother must now tell each of them the truth about their identities. The film is based on the theatre piece of the same name by Oscar Wilde.

Winemaker Peter Vierkottel and his son Bartel love to talk about their wines, which Anna, Peter's wife, doesn't get off on, because she controls the family money. She wants order and to marry off her son to Binchen, the daughter of the gardener Jupp Spriestersbach. The problem is Binchen has long had her eyes on the young gardener Bock.

A waitress takes all the gossip of a small town on the Rhine in stride, in spite of a distinguished composer being a loving husband and father for her illegitimate child.