"Im weissen Rössl" is a West German (even if it feels Austrian) movie from 1952, so this one is almost 70 years old now, but despite the age it is already a color film, not in black-and-white. And I think this was a pretty good choice, bescause the film's energy, esprit and music would not have worked so well on a black-and-white film. But first things first. There are many writers credited here, which is because they also list those that wrote the play and operetta. I am not sure how accurate this is, but I guess it is alright if the names are actually shown on ths screen. The one and only director is Willi Forst and this was one of his final filmmaking efforts, even if he lived on for a long time afterwards still. Same is at least partially true for lead actress Johanna Matz. Yes she acted in the 60s still in quite a few projects, but given the fact that she is still alive today, she has not exactly done a lot in the last 50 years, even if she acted in some stuff in the 2000s. But now approaching 90, she is retired and well-deserved so. The two males at the center of this one here have been more prolific. Walter Müller acted frequently until his relatively untimely death and well Johannes Heesters what is there to say about him. He is a bit of an icon, which mostly has to do with him making it to the age of 108(!) and acting in films when he was a centennarian already. The rest of the cast also includes names who were very prolific back in the day, even if probably today only German film buffs will recognize them.
There are actually really many versions of this film. "Im Weissen Rössl" is a title that many will recognize, even if most probably do not remember the exact contents of the story. Very popular pretty much to this day. The most recent version is a little over 5 years old and the oldest go back almost a century now. This one here is definitely among the more known and it is occasionally still shown on TV here in Germany, usually in the afternoon like it was today. It runs for 1.5 hours (plus a few more minutes for the credits) and tells us the story of a female innkeeper who is crushing on a doctor who is a guest at the hotel while she herself is courted by the head waiter of the establishment. So romance is at the key of it all and it involves side stories too involving characters I haven't mentioned so far and do not really intend to in detail. But I do wanna say this film once again made it obvious to me that I usually dig dark-haired girls more than blondes because honestly Matz did nothing for me, but Wischmann and Pan I found kinda cute. This could not really make up though for the weaknesses in story-telling for me here unfortunately. The jokes are rarely entertaining I must say like the old guy at the table who does not know the alternate names of the dishes on the menu and realizes he is about to order the one meal he likes the least. But I do not want to waste my (and your) time on these weaker jokes. Instead, let's focus on what I enjoyed. This would be the romance scene near the end between Pan's character and her suitor (that one seemed so gay haha, he would be in a more modern movie) and also the boy talking to the male protagonist was a bit fun too speaking as if he was 30 years older looking at the experiences he made with women. But sadly, these better moments are the exceptions. I must say I also sometimes struggled to keep Heesters and Müller apart, which made it more difficult to understand the story in detail, let alone appreciate it. It did not feel too realistic to me. I think it is quite a challenge to depict the female central character's change in mind in a credible and realistic manner that all of a sudden she likes her waiter the most after having eyes only for the doctor for the 80 minutes before that and here they certainly did not manage. First of all it felt really stupid that she would bother the Kaiser with her love struggles, especially because she was such a touch and professional womanm before that, but that she then changes her mind because what said Kaiser tells her judt did not cut the cake for me at all. A really weak elaboration on maybe the most important moment of the film. Everything else is only so-so too. No real failures here to be honest, but also no real good moments regardless if we are talking about the music (I still liked the orchestra more than the singing), the romance, the acting and everything else basically. Maybe the sets were 3 stars out of 5, but the costumes also weren't really and that is weak for a film with a subject like this. So all in all, absolitely not enough for a positive recommendation. It's a thumbs-down for me. Watch something else instead.
There are actually really many versions of this film. "Im Weissen Rössl" is a title that many will recognize, even if most probably do not remember the exact contents of the story. Very popular pretty much to this day. The most recent version is a little over 5 years old and the oldest go back almost a century now. This one here is definitely among the more known and it is occasionally still shown on TV here in Germany, usually in the afternoon like it was today. It runs for 1.5 hours (plus a few more minutes for the credits) and tells us the story of a female innkeeper who is crushing on a doctor who is a guest at the hotel while she herself is courted by the head waiter of the establishment. So romance is at the key of it all and it involves side stories too involving characters I haven't mentioned so far and do not really intend to in detail. But I do wanna say this film once again made it obvious to me that I usually dig dark-haired girls more than blondes because honestly Matz did nothing for me, but Wischmann and Pan I found kinda cute. This could not really make up though for the weaknesses in story-telling for me here unfortunately. The jokes are rarely entertaining I must say like the old guy at the table who does not know the alternate names of the dishes on the menu and realizes he is about to order the one meal he likes the least. But I do not want to waste my (and your) time on these weaker jokes. Instead, let's focus on what I enjoyed. This would be the romance scene near the end between Pan's character and her suitor (that one seemed so gay haha, he would be in a more modern movie) and also the boy talking to the male protagonist was a bit fun too speaking as if he was 30 years older looking at the experiences he made with women. But sadly, these better moments are the exceptions. I must say I also sometimes struggled to keep Heesters and Müller apart, which made it more difficult to understand the story in detail, let alone appreciate it. It did not feel too realistic to me. I think it is quite a challenge to depict the female central character's change in mind in a credible and realistic manner that all of a sudden she likes her waiter the most after having eyes only for the doctor for the 80 minutes before that and here they certainly did not manage. First of all it felt really stupid that she would bother the Kaiser with her love struggles, especially because she was such a touch and professional womanm before that, but that she then changes her mind because what said Kaiser tells her judt did not cut the cake for me at all. A really weak elaboration on maybe the most important moment of the film. Everything else is only so-so too. No real failures here to be honest, but also no real good moments regardless if we are talking about the music (I still liked the orchestra more than the singing), the romance, the acting and everything else basically. Maybe the sets were 3 stars out of 5, but the costumes also weren't really and that is weak for a film with a subject like this. So all in all, absolitely not enough for a positive recommendation. It's a thumbs-down for me. Watch something else instead.
