Clearly the Bratwurst and Sauerkraut guy of German porn (a Teutonic twist on the meat 'n' potatoes variety of movie-making, just in case I lost you), not exactly the most fertile breeding ground for cinematic creativity to begin with at the best of times, Jürgen Enz signed most of his hardcore endeavors using the alias "Kenneth Howard", a name fornication film fans soon learned to fear. Main reason for this was the director's typically tiresome approach to frantic farce, all too appropriate to his nationality, think sub-standard Benny Hill with lots of pratfalls and people chasing each other, mugging shamelessly to assure even the dimmest of Jerries got the joke. DAS SEXABITUR, KOHLPIESEL'S TÖCHTER, VERBOTENE SPIELE AUF DER SCHULBANK, the list seems endless and feels even longer in actual viewing, as assembly line and cookie cutter as the genre ever gets.
With a script credited to Christoph Walz (I'm assuming this is NOT the similarly spelled Austrian actor and recent Academy Award winner from Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS!), DIE LIEBESVÖGEL proves par for the course, its sole saving grace provided by Günter Lemmer's characteristically colorful bordering on gaudy cinematography desperately cringing to convey good cheer. Its bevy of beautiful if overly made up starlets really deserves better than the constraints of such a career-crippling concoction. Pressed into purely decorative duty, with the sad exception of far side of zaftig Christa Abel once again employed as a facile figure of fun forced to strip down to lingerie (and worse), they supply the eye candy the guys go gaga for, supposedly making Huns heave with laughter. Illustrating the cultural contours that often keep comedy from traveling abroad, I saw this film only yesterday - unfortunately, not for the first time - at the still hanging in there ABC cinema in Brussels, making up a mind-boggling double bill with Roberta Findlay's supremely downbeat MYSTIQUE, and you could hear a pin drop for all the guffaws it generated.
Stalwart stallion Rolf Zigan (familiar from Alan Vydra's HAPPY HOLIDAYS and who resembles a svelte sibling of Siggi Buchner, making a brief appearance for convenient comparison) stars as bank clerk Peter Wohlers, so painfully shy around the fairer sex he has to binge booze himself into a stupor to work up the courage to make his move. This frequently leads to awkward situations waking up next to women he doesn't even recall picking up in the first place, such as the all too briefly glimpsed Biggi Stenzhorn from Hans Billian's profoundly preferable ZIMMERMÄDCHEN MACHEN ES GERN in film's pre-credits sequence. Taking the week off from work to sort out his hang-ups at the behest of his surprisingly sympathetic employer, another thankless turn by middle-aged mucky movie mainstay Horst Sieger (the blind dude oracle from Enz's side-splitting TAGEBUCH EINER SIEBZEHNJÄHRIGEN), Peter makes his way to Munich for a crash course in can't fail seduction techniques from his impressively bewhiskered best buddy Frank (Michael Wagner) who's in the midst of groping gorgeous Ginny Noack, shown to much greater advantage in Navred Reef's stateside if foreign-filmed PLAYGIRLS OF MUNICH.
Married Marion Brandmeier (also in Gunter Otto's PROFESSIONAL JANINE) scratches Peter's itch but thwarts his romantic expectations when she turns out to be a mom as well which instantly renders her off limits in the hopelessly middle class suburbs of '70s Schnitzel skin flicks. A trip to a local brothel yields, apart from Abel's embarrassing cameo, some perfectly passable three-way turmoil - albeit labored rather than lustful - courtesy of the delectable Dorle Buchner from Michel Caputo's big budget WILD PLAYGIRLS and an uncredited performer also in SEXABITUR. This encounter doesn't quite cut it either for our hard to please Peter, play for pay apparently too disheartening a prospect to put up with (cue more German bourgeois hypocrisy), his innate gentlemanly nature costing him a small fortune in "thanks, but no thanks" floral arrangements purchased from pretty bouquet boutique proprietress Margitta Höfer, another Billian beauty seen in both ROSEMARIE'S SCHLECKERLAND and AUS DEM TAGEBUCH DER JOSEFINE MUTZENBACHER. No prizes for guessing that this hardworking good girl (Gott im Himmel, I rest my case...) will turn out to be Peter's true lurve, although slipshod editing reduces their eventual union to little more than an afterthought.
With a script credited to Christoph Walz (I'm assuming this is NOT the similarly spelled Austrian actor and recent Academy Award winner from Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS!), DIE LIEBESVÖGEL proves par for the course, its sole saving grace provided by Günter Lemmer's characteristically colorful bordering on gaudy cinematography desperately cringing to convey good cheer. Its bevy of beautiful if overly made up starlets really deserves better than the constraints of such a career-crippling concoction. Pressed into purely decorative duty, with the sad exception of far side of zaftig Christa Abel once again employed as a facile figure of fun forced to strip down to lingerie (and worse), they supply the eye candy the guys go gaga for, supposedly making Huns heave with laughter. Illustrating the cultural contours that often keep comedy from traveling abroad, I saw this film only yesterday - unfortunately, not for the first time - at the still hanging in there ABC cinema in Brussels, making up a mind-boggling double bill with Roberta Findlay's supremely downbeat MYSTIQUE, and you could hear a pin drop for all the guffaws it generated.
Stalwart stallion Rolf Zigan (familiar from Alan Vydra's HAPPY HOLIDAYS and who resembles a svelte sibling of Siggi Buchner, making a brief appearance for convenient comparison) stars as bank clerk Peter Wohlers, so painfully shy around the fairer sex he has to binge booze himself into a stupor to work up the courage to make his move. This frequently leads to awkward situations waking up next to women he doesn't even recall picking up in the first place, such as the all too briefly glimpsed Biggi Stenzhorn from Hans Billian's profoundly preferable ZIMMERMÄDCHEN MACHEN ES GERN in film's pre-credits sequence. Taking the week off from work to sort out his hang-ups at the behest of his surprisingly sympathetic employer, another thankless turn by middle-aged mucky movie mainstay Horst Sieger (the blind dude oracle from Enz's side-splitting TAGEBUCH EINER SIEBZEHNJÄHRIGEN), Peter makes his way to Munich for a crash course in can't fail seduction techniques from his impressively bewhiskered best buddy Frank (Michael Wagner) who's in the midst of groping gorgeous Ginny Noack, shown to much greater advantage in Navred Reef's stateside if foreign-filmed PLAYGIRLS OF MUNICH.
Married Marion Brandmeier (also in Gunter Otto's PROFESSIONAL JANINE) scratches Peter's itch but thwarts his romantic expectations when she turns out to be a mom as well which instantly renders her off limits in the hopelessly middle class suburbs of '70s Schnitzel skin flicks. A trip to a local brothel yields, apart from Abel's embarrassing cameo, some perfectly passable three-way turmoil - albeit labored rather than lustful - courtesy of the delectable Dorle Buchner from Michel Caputo's big budget WILD PLAYGIRLS and an uncredited performer also in SEXABITUR. This encounter doesn't quite cut it either for our hard to please Peter, play for pay apparently too disheartening a prospect to put up with (cue more German bourgeois hypocrisy), his innate gentlemanly nature costing him a small fortune in "thanks, but no thanks" floral arrangements purchased from pretty bouquet boutique proprietress Margitta Höfer, another Billian beauty seen in both ROSEMARIE'S SCHLECKERLAND and AUS DEM TAGEBUCH DER JOSEFINE MUTZENBACHER. No prizes for guessing that this hardworking good girl (Gott im Himmel, I rest my case...) will turn out to be Peter's true lurve, although slipshod editing reduces their eventual union to little more than an afterthought.