"Es Muß Nicht Immer Kaviar sein" or "Operation Caviar" is a co-production between West Germany and France from 1961 that resulted in a German-language movie from 1961, which means this one already has its 55th anniversary this year. The title already implies that it is a film not to be taken too seriously, so we have a comedy here. I am not sure about the thriller component listed here on IMDb. There may be a tense moment here and there, but this possibly takes it too far to say it would be such an unusual combination of genres. Anyway, I cannot say I enjoyed the watch at all. Not even O.W. Fischer can make it work and he is seen by many as the most talented German-language actor from this era. I never saw too much in Senta Berger when it comes to range and talent and it makes it difficult to appreciate the film if she plays one of the central characters. Her looks are good of course, but that's it. Eva Bartok may be better, but I cannot say she wowed me either. The rest of the cast I am not familiar with, so no further elaboration. But none of them gave a performance either that motivates me to take a look into their body of work. Same about the makers. I find it always shocking to find so many people working on a film like this one here (as writers and directors) and still the final outcome is so entirely forgettable as this black-and-white film. The latter I am probably not a great fan of and this is a subjective perception only, but I also found the script and plot extremely lacking in terms of quality and character development. Sometimes it doesn't feel realistic and when it does, it still feels uninteresting. The consequence is that the movie drags on several occasions and felt way too long and lacking focus at approximately 100 movies. It is very telling if a film like this receives awards attention, gets a sequel and finally even a series based on the characters. The 1960s have not been good at all when it comes to (West) German movies and here we have a prime example of an above-average famous film from the country that is actually entirely forgettable and hasn't age well at all, but also should not have received all this attention decades ago. There is not a single area (acting, writing, directing etc.) where I would really say this is an aspect that the film is worth seeing for. So stay away and watch something else instead. Names like Helmut Käutner and Géza von Radványi that frequently stand for quality do not cut the cake here.
