The opening credits reveal exactly what's in store for the next 82 minutes: lots of people frolicking around in the nude on a beach. Most of the footage from this sequence will indeed be repeated during the frequent musical numbers later on and so will the silly song that goes with it. Also, I wonder how many of these nudists knew they were being filmed and exactly how much of them would end up on the big screen. There are almost as many story lines as there are characters in Jerzy Macc's fourth and final directing effort.
For starters we are introduced to Ingrid Ludwig & Katrin Schweiter (Ingrid Steeger und Monica Marc) who share a first place in a miss topless dancing contest and win a trip to a straw-roofed hotel in Kampen on the island of Sylt. Unfortunately Steeger, uncrowned Queen of the early seventies nudes, has the least developed role to play (Monica Marc gets off slightly better). The actor who gets the most screen time of all is Achim Strietzel, who plays a wealthy director-general called Hugo Weber. Accompanied by his chauffeur, this director is adamant to seduce a young girl during his stay in Kampen but fails each and every time.
Further more, a guy driving a dune buggy picks up two chicks at the station. They immediately go skinny dipping at the beach, where the naughty girls bury his clothes in the sand. He doesn't seem to mind at all. Oh, those gay seventies. In succession we are introduced to Tante Cordula and her nerdy nephew Edgar, their next door neighbor Ina, a fat photographer, an architect named Stefan and some interchangeable campers who have set up their tents nearby. There are also a lot of unprofessional extra's in the café and bar scenes who never seem to know where to look or what to do except keeping track of the actual actors. Unlike most of the films Ingrid Steeger was appearing in at this time, the characters seem to be slightly less obsessed with sex than usual. This is of course because they frequent the naked beach all the time and therefore don't need another excuse to take their kits off. One things is for sure: this picture features as much male full frontal nudity as there is female. On the rare occasions when people are actually wearing clothes, some fabulous 1971 fashions are on display.
At first wimpy Edgar seems very interested in Ina, but later on he falls for Katrin. Why either of these pretty girls would be interested in this geeky coat rack of a boy is anybody's guess. Meanwhile his auntie Cordulla hooks up with an old friend, Mrs. Piepenbrink, who unfortunately also gets naked at one point. More new characters pop up every other scene even when we're well past the half-way point. For instance, a hitchhiker named Sabine avoids the advances of the old man who gave her a ride. We even follow this older man home where his wife is cheating on him. Meanwhile the General is still having no luck getting a girl. Even his chauffeur has better fortune. The same silly songs are repeated over and over on the soundtrack, including, for some reason, an instrumental version of 'Feliz Navidad'. This might have something to do with the fact that a lot of scenes were clearly shot in cold and windy weather. There's even a storm alert during one of the beach scenes. So it must have been quite a grueling shoot for a lot of these naked actors.
Before long, the constant bad luck of the Director-General has become rather boring and predictable. Sabine the hitchhiker turns out to be his daughter and of course she decides to teach him a lesson as well. There are so many characters running around it is difficult to form any attachment. The last few gags involving Tate Cordula are especially unsatisfying and anti-climactic. Only if you can't get enough of seeing older men lusting unsuccessfully after younger women, you'll really enjoy this picture.
5 out of 10
For starters we are introduced to Ingrid Ludwig & Katrin Schweiter (Ingrid Steeger und Monica Marc) who share a first place in a miss topless dancing contest and win a trip to a straw-roofed hotel in Kampen on the island of Sylt. Unfortunately Steeger, uncrowned Queen of the early seventies nudes, has the least developed role to play (Monica Marc gets off slightly better). The actor who gets the most screen time of all is Achim Strietzel, who plays a wealthy director-general called Hugo Weber. Accompanied by his chauffeur, this director is adamant to seduce a young girl during his stay in Kampen but fails each and every time.
Further more, a guy driving a dune buggy picks up two chicks at the station. They immediately go skinny dipping at the beach, where the naughty girls bury his clothes in the sand. He doesn't seem to mind at all. Oh, those gay seventies. In succession we are introduced to Tante Cordula and her nerdy nephew Edgar, their next door neighbor Ina, a fat photographer, an architect named Stefan and some interchangeable campers who have set up their tents nearby. There are also a lot of unprofessional extra's in the café and bar scenes who never seem to know where to look or what to do except keeping track of the actual actors. Unlike most of the films Ingrid Steeger was appearing in at this time, the characters seem to be slightly less obsessed with sex than usual. This is of course because they frequent the naked beach all the time and therefore don't need another excuse to take their kits off. One things is for sure: this picture features as much male full frontal nudity as there is female. On the rare occasions when people are actually wearing clothes, some fabulous 1971 fashions are on display.
At first wimpy Edgar seems very interested in Ina, but later on he falls for Katrin. Why either of these pretty girls would be interested in this geeky coat rack of a boy is anybody's guess. Meanwhile his auntie Cordulla hooks up with an old friend, Mrs. Piepenbrink, who unfortunately also gets naked at one point. More new characters pop up every other scene even when we're well past the half-way point. For instance, a hitchhiker named Sabine avoids the advances of the old man who gave her a ride. We even follow this older man home where his wife is cheating on him. Meanwhile the General is still having no luck getting a girl. Even his chauffeur has better fortune. The same silly songs are repeated over and over on the soundtrack, including, for some reason, an instrumental version of 'Feliz Navidad'. This might have something to do with the fact that a lot of scenes were clearly shot in cold and windy weather. There's even a storm alert during one of the beach scenes. So it must have been quite a grueling shoot for a lot of these naked actors.
Before long, the constant bad luck of the Director-General has become rather boring and predictable. Sabine the hitchhiker turns out to be his daughter and of course she decides to teach him a lesson as well. There are so many characters running around it is difficult to form any attachment. The last few gags involving Tate Cordula are especially unsatisfying and anti-climactic. Only if you can't get enough of seeing older men lusting unsuccessfully after younger women, you'll really enjoy this picture.
5 out of 10
