User Reviews

Released in the early Seventies, this is mainly old-fashioned family entertainment – and perhaps a little more than that. Basically, it's a remake of the 1941 Hollywood comedy "It started with Eve". The script cleverly focuses on it's main character, a rich, old, grumpy and imperious Ex-Consul, named Jonathan Reynolds, who seems to be on his death bed at the beginning, but soon recovers to everyones surprise. All the dialog and comedic twists, like Jonathan constantly disobeying the House-doctors orders, seem to be tailored to fit Heinz Ruehmann in the title role. Ruehmann, who so often in his career had played average citizens, sympathetic at first sight, really makes fun of the wealthy but lonely old man, whose insufferable manners cover a heart of gold. The story unfolds, as the consuls son (weak: Peter Fricke) presents a poor girl student (lovely: Franziska Oehme) as his bride. Actually she is just a substitute for his real fiancé, who is absent, and he picked her up accidentally and hired her to appear before his father for a brief moment: A fraud, set up to fulfill the last wish of a dying man. But when Jonathan recovers unexpectedly, he demands to see his pretended daughter-in-law again ...

Aside from fine supporting roles like Paul Dahlke, as Jonathans Doctor, who assists desperately in holding up the fraud, the film contains two music interludes, sung and piano-performed by the female lead (though Oehmes voice is clearly overdubbed here). They may sound a bit dated now but they work surprisingly well and add a warm hearted note both to the girls character and the movie.