The only thing this film has in common with the 1943 Münchhausen is that both were made in Germany. Other than that any connection to the World's Greatest Liar is frankly beyond me. Clumsy Peter von Münchhausen (Peter Alexander) is no match in any way for his supposed grandfather (or grand uncle, whatever). His lies are not all that great, and only seem to get him into trouble instead of getting him out of them. Besides, they are more like agitations anyway.
Peter von M. is a dreamer who only wants two things out of life: to write and perform music, and to marry Josephine (Anita Gutwell) . Waking up from an African dream sequence bound to give viewers the wrong impression of things to come (don't worry, the Afrika in the title was not filmed on cardboard sets), Peter is late for his music teacher job at an all girl boarding school and gets dismissed owing to a combination of tardiness and too much singing and dancing with his students.
Lecturing about African music on live TV lead Peter into a never ending musical number as well as being hired as an 'Africa Expert' by rich Karla Mai. His big mouth has unwillingly gotten him a trip into the deep, dark jungle, together with Karla's brat of a boy Karlchen and, who else, Josephine. His great grandfathers' portrait on the wall (also played by Peter Alexander) laughs at him (and sings too). The moment they step off the boat, a couple of swindlers named Bill and January sucker Peter into hiring them, while Der Kleiner Karlchen swaps a water pistol and two sticks of gum for a gorilla suit. Oodles of fun at the "Blue Gorilla" ensue.
Having set up camp in the jungle under a big tree, Peter has a couple of 'comedic' close encounters with elephants and rhino's, before suddenly developing a heroic streak when Josephine and the fat lady are attacked by alligators. One thing this film does have going for it, is some beautiful color photography, none of which feels like it's recycled from stock material. Captured by a tribe of natives, Peter is robbed of his vitamin C and forced to marry the Chief's daughter (who else), but first he has to use his Witch Doctor powers of song and dance. The crooked tour guides try to sell the white folk to the tribe, but Peter asks his ancestor Hieronymus for aid and turns "Revolver Bill" und "Knakker Jahn" into the police, only to receive a thousand pound reward. With that, he returns home, finally works up the nerve to propose to Josephine (though we never actually see that) and put's on a show of his music, meaning the whole kit and caboodle has nicely come full circle.
7 out of 10
Peter von M. is a dreamer who only wants two things out of life: to write and perform music, and to marry Josephine (Anita Gutwell) . Waking up from an African dream sequence bound to give viewers the wrong impression of things to come (don't worry, the Afrika in the title was not filmed on cardboard sets), Peter is late for his music teacher job at an all girl boarding school and gets dismissed owing to a combination of tardiness and too much singing and dancing with his students.
Lecturing about African music on live TV lead Peter into a never ending musical number as well as being hired as an 'Africa Expert' by rich Karla Mai. His big mouth has unwillingly gotten him a trip into the deep, dark jungle, together with Karla's brat of a boy Karlchen and, who else, Josephine. His great grandfathers' portrait on the wall (also played by Peter Alexander) laughs at him (and sings too). The moment they step off the boat, a couple of swindlers named Bill and January sucker Peter into hiring them, while Der Kleiner Karlchen swaps a water pistol and two sticks of gum for a gorilla suit. Oodles of fun at the "Blue Gorilla" ensue.
Having set up camp in the jungle under a big tree, Peter has a couple of 'comedic' close encounters with elephants and rhino's, before suddenly developing a heroic streak when Josephine and the fat lady are attacked by alligators. One thing this film does have going for it, is some beautiful color photography, none of which feels like it's recycled from stock material. Captured by a tribe of natives, Peter is robbed of his vitamin C and forced to marry the Chief's daughter (who else), but first he has to use his Witch Doctor powers of song and dance. The crooked tour guides try to sell the white folk to the tribe, but Peter asks his ancestor Hieronymus for aid and turns "Revolver Bill" und "Knakker Jahn" into the police, only to receive a thousand pound reward. With that, he returns home, finally works up the nerve to propose to Josephine (though we never actually see that) and put's on a show of his music, meaning the whole kit and caboodle has nicely come full circle.
7 out of 10
