Das fröhliche Hotel

A new hotel has opened in the mountains, and an assortment of guests arrive for the summer: families with children, married couples, and people looking for love.

It's a standard multi-story movie, with some sharp dialogue, thanks to an assortment of writers, including Scarpelli & Age, Luigi Zampa, and the movie's director, Antonio Racioppi. Vittorio de Sica heads the cast list, but he's no romantic leading man her,e but an old bachelor, full of crotchets, a little desperate and sad. The rest of the cast is competent, strong, and they play their roles straight..... a sure sign of good comic writing, mixing the drama of people seeking love, but worried about what it entails.

Vittorio de Sica is only one of the guests here, an elderly man who has come to the place to find some rest, which he never does: noisy music playing late at night, taps keeping dripping, and the worst problem of all: snoring guests. Two young students come up here to find some leisure for their studies, but this comes to nothing, as there are too many beautiful young ladies around. One of these is a rather smashing Brazilian who almost steals the entire show, she performs the one great dancing performance here, but she has a very jealous husband, who relentlessly keeps restricting her, while she makes the best of the few days when he is gone. An actor has ambitions for Cinecittà and is the only ridiculous member of the gallery. One of the more mature ladies has a penchant for tango and keeps urging one of the younger men to constantly partner her in the same tango played over and over again, with consequences. There are other consequences as well of all these people coming together with or without relationships and finding new ones, so although it is not a hilarious high gear comedy, it definitely keeps up a high level of entertainment all the way.