"Hokuspokus" is a West German movie from 1953, so this one is already almost 65 years old and nobody should be surprised that this is still a black-and-white film. The director is Kurt Hoffmann, who was pretty prolific and successful back then. The script comes from Curt Goetz who not only adapted his own play here, but also plays the main character. The female lead is Valerie von Martens, who played on many other Goetz projects as well. After all, she was his longtime wife. It's basically a two-men show from this duo, even if there are quite a few supporting players in here, but they really just work in minor roles putting even more focus on Goetz and von Martens. It is the story of a woman who has to go to court because she is suspected of having killed her man during a boat trip. But things are not exactly what they seem. Not at all actually. Which is the role of the prosecutor and the defense attorney? What does the circus that a painter regularly appeared at have to do with everything? And last but not least, what did really happen? Murder? Suicide? An accident? Maybe none of all that. Despite the somewhat serious topic, this is a 100% comedy film really and the annoying laughter from the courtroom audience was included so that we would never forget. As a whole I must say there were not enough really funny moments for me to make up for said laughter and also for all the absurdity that came with this movie. There is nothing realistic about it at all unfortunately. I do not need a very realistic comedy to enjoy it, but very basic factors would indeed apply. That's just my personal opinion though. I did not enjoy the watch as much as I hoped looking the IMDb rating. Thumbs down. Oh yeah, if you enjoyed more than I did, you may also want to check out the Rühmann/Pulver film from the mid-60s that is a remake of this story.
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