User Reviews

The Austrian goverment, always short of money, tries to sell the Austrian customs to a consortium of Swiss banks. Unfortunately on the Austrian-Swiss border there is the customs officer Laurenz Hasenhuettl, played by the unforgettable Hans Moser, who confuses the envoy of the Swiss banks with a wanted criminal. He creates such a chaos that finally the Austrian goverment collapses. This is one of the very few Hans Moser films, which besides excellent performance of Moser is also based on a good story.

Most of the films with Hans Moser that I have seen have been quite enjoyable. That he is difficult to understand is his trademark, and maybe that is why films in which he plays smaller roles appeal more to me personally. But in this movie he is just too idiotic, and there is definitely too much of him. Since he appears in practically every scene, his antics become tiresome. He plays a stupid, overbearing Austrian customs inspector at the border between Austria and Switzerland. He feels that after twenty-five years of service he should have a higher position and is bucking for a promotion. The notice that a well-known pair of jewel thieves may be heading his way makes him hope arresting them personally will lead not only to that promotion but also to the reward offered by the police for the capture of these criminals. Because he wants the credit and the reward for himself alone, he rides roughshod over his underlings when he finds a couple he suspects, not realizing that he is interfering in high and crooked politics. Naturally, when things go wrong, he blames everybody but himself.