User Reviews

"Charley's Tante" or "Charley's Aunt" is a West German sound and color film from 1963, so this one had its 50th anniversary already. There is a version of the same film starring Heinz Rühmann from the 1950s and here we get Peter Alexander's take on the story. The writer and director is Géza von Cziffra and one of his co-writers is Gustav Kampendonk, who also worked on the film I mentioned earlier. Films with men dressing up as women are always a bit edgy I guess, but at least Alexander seemed to be having a good time from what it looked like. I also think (apart from his height) he looks more feminine than Rühmann, or the makeup was just better what helped the film at least a bit. Still it felt difficult at times to believe that people actually thought Alexander's character was really a woman. The music is so-so, but the comedy is fairly weak and sadly that's a common denominator in several Alexander films. I guess there is a reason why he stopped acting at some point and just focused on hosting and entertaining. He is not the greatest actor admittedly, but makes up for his lack of range with his great charisma. Sadly, this is something that cannot be said about his supporting cast here. I believe that this is a difficult original work by Brandon Thomas when it comes to turning this into a good film. Here, they did not succeed. Thumbs down.