Die Ente klingelt um halb acht

Rolf Thiele obviously wanted to make a grotesque and topical satire on social, technical and political changes in the 60's, but neither the grotesque nor the satire came very easy with him. It is a very poor and in the meantime also very dated and talkative satire. Not only the satire is poor, the film is poorly made too; Thiele never had any control. The film never runs smoothly and some trick cinematography is cheaply executed. Married couple Heinz Rühmann and Hertha Feiler are totally at a loss here; this would be their last film together and it is a shame that it had to be this dud.

This classic comedy is wrongly ripped off by self-proclaimed experts. It is the only German comedy with Italian support that was shot as if it came directly from America.

In my estimate the film isn't as bad as the comment of Jan Onderwater suggests. It has some great moments and colorful details, for instance the set decorations. The crazy director of the mental hospital, cracking matches all the time to get his nervousness under control, is sitting in front of a painting, that instantly makes you laugh: a big red splash like blood on a white canvas. The hallways and rooms of the hospital are equipped with psychedelic and op-art paintings and you ask yourself, whether they decorate the interior of the institution or rather create the madness going on inside it. All in all the film is about the eternal question, who is crazier, the lunatic or the society he lives in. The performances of the actors is not consistent. Sometimes the two stars of the film, Heinz Rühmann and Charles Régnier, act quite brilliantly, sometimes they look kind of misplaced, but obviously owing to a weak director's leading rather than to their own abilities. The weak sides of the film include severe mistakes of timing, for instance in many of the hunt scenes, and a lack of sense for the increase and decrease of dramatic suspense. Still the film is a child of its time in the best sense and therefore has its true value, although it is far from perfect.