kassandro

This is the best film adaption of this classical operetta I have seen so far. Very recently a digitally colored and cleaned version of this movie has been released. I was stunned to see such an old movie played with such an outstanding technical quality.

Already before he made this movie Willi Forst was the "Bel Ami" of the UFA era. Through this film, which is clearly one of his very best, we can see him, as he was seen during his most successful time. The movie is dominated by Theo Mackeben's immortal song "Du hast Glück bei den Frauen, Bel Ami" performed by Lizzi Waldmüller.

The Austrian goverment, always short of money, tries to sell the Austrian customs to a consortium of Swiss banks. Unfortunately on the Austrian-Swiss border there is the customs officer Laurenz Hasenhuettl, played by the unforgettable Hans Moser, who confuses the envoy of the Swiss banks with a wanted criminal. He creates such a chaos that finally the Austrian goverment collapses. This is one of the very few Hans Moser films, which besides excellent performance of Moser is also based on a good story.