Ich vertraue Dir meine Frau an

Romantic comedies made in Germany's Nazi era often come across as strange hybrids, and this is no exception, or rather: a prime example. On the one hand we find signs of the wit and sophistication which Lubitsch, Wilder & Co. exported to Hollywood, including morals the Hayes code would certainly not have approved of, on the other it re-enforces sexual stereotypes to an extent that borders to political propaganda. Men can't cook or sew, women always want to get married, etc.

The plot idea is about a man asking a friend to watch over his wife, since she threatened to have an affair if he goes on a certain business trip (with his beautiful secretary). This idea has potential for lots of plot twists, but this potential is hardly touched and we find ourselves mostly watching situations that resemble TV sitcoms.

The cast make the best of this material, although the female lead (Lil Adina) is a bit of a let-down, giggling a lot throughout the second half of the film.

An unforgivably stupid comedy, with dialog as flat as a pancake. Sorry for the actors who had to chew their way through this laughless mishmash. It's supposed to be a comedy of manners, about adultery, but how can you make anything out of this material when your main goal is to make a film so cute and precious that it flows over the spectators like syrup over the ants? The results are lukewarm at best and irritating and tiresome at worst. Redeeming factors: there's a very well shot musical number, a big band playing a jazzy tune. It's obviously influenced by the big band numbers in two Glen Miller films - Orchestra Wives and Sun Valley Serenade. Well done! Unfortunately, halfway through the tune a second rate operetta tenor steps in to deliver the lyrics in a most uninspired fashion. The tune itself is nothing to write home about too, even though most of the hit songs of the era came from (even non-musical) films such as this. Then, there's the beautiful Lil Adina, or Adina Mandlova. She was a Chech star, here performing in her only German film. My Chech friends told me that she was Jewish, and in this film she acts opposite superstar Heinz Rühmann, who also had a beautiful Jewish actress-wife (Herta Feiler). It's hard to tell, how these things were arranged in Nazi Germany. Mandlova moved to England after the war, as the communist power accused her of collaboration with the Nazis and she was in threat of being executed. Sadly her film career never took off there. "Ich vertraue..." isn't her best film. It could have been the wish of the director, but she is made to act soooooo cute, constantly wrinkling her nose and displaying her dimples, so she comes off like Meg Ryan multiplied by herself. It also seems there is no chemistry between her and Rühmann. I've seen her in a Chech movie from 1940, where she was cold as ice and supercool, and that probably was her forte. We do get a shot of her undressing and spending time naked in bed with two gentlemen in the room. Even though you can't see anything, this indeed is a tantalizing situation. There's another really tiresome woman, Else von Möllendorf, in charge of comic relief (complete in its stupidity with a girls' pillow fight). What tragedy. She only has one expression at her perusal - that known from the pin up postcards of Elvgren: "Ooops, it seems I dropped my nickers!". The same expression does a good job destroying another film of the era - "Peter Voss, the thief of millions" from 1945. Why they ever used her, is beyond me. There are so much better German films from the WW II period. I suggest you don't waste your time on this one, unless you are a true blue affectionado.