Müllers Büro

This thing is SO much fun ! It takes on all film noir clichés and does so very well ... I needed to use my old PAL vhs and burn my own DVD of it ... for american minds in is incredible that this was on prime time TV (public, not cable) in germany .. it has quite an explicit love scene where the main star goes down on the leading lady (while she keeps singing .. this scene is hillarious) One of the few movies that will never see DVD exposure .. but really should .. and yes .. the 3rd act is a bit sucky !

If you haven't seen this film, do it. Its a genremix as i've never seen another. Some very surreal scenes, some hilarious funny stuff, a film noir felling, musical numbers with a swing, sex scenes (The 2nd best played orgasm on Film, bested only by Sally), a pitch of Orson Welles blended together into a work of art. As an work of art it hasn't to be logical at the end, at least not logical for everybody ;-). I owned an tv copy on VHS but loaned it to an ex-girlfriend and now i can't get it back. But the film should be out on DVD in Austria on 10.06.03 and be sure, I will buy it.

A unique blend of musical, film-noir and comedy - with a few sex scenes thrown in for good measure. The only other film I can think of with a fairly similarly wild and madcap mixture of themes and clichés is the French movie Billy Ze Kick - but that has a more surreal and quirky approach.

Not that this film would not be surreal or quirky. The humour is at times quite subtle, at other times blatantly in your face - and often crossing the border to offensiveness. To give an example: in the post-coital chit-chat with a prostitute our hero Max Müller encourages her to reveal who was responsible for a recent murder, using the words "Schiess los!". Literally, this phrase means "Shoot!" in German, and that is exactly what a hidden assassin does in response. In other words - this beautiful lady was sacrificed for a pun.

Müllers Büro is also one of the very rare examples of films with funny sex scenes. Larry's romance is accompanied by the song "Ich will mehr" (I want more) - while the song perfectly underpins the action, the meaning of its words changes a couple of times, hinting at the end at Larry's inability of providing any further service. The film's main love scene between Max Müller and Bettina Kant lacks such subtlety - this is jaw-dropping stuff, especially when Bettina's singing slowly transgresses into moaning, of course all in the rhythm of the music.

Unmissable, unless you are one of the easily offended.

Do you liked "Dead Man don't wear Plaid"? What about "Top Secret" and "A Chorus Line"? Well Müllers Büro is a fantastic Melange of all three of them, as unlikely it may seem. Very Funny "tongue in Cheek" Movie Noir hommage with stunning Songs and great Dancing. You have to have a little odd humor for this movie, but it is very well worth seeing it. I've voted it a nine, If the end would be a bit more logic it would have gotten a ten. Thats how Good that Movie is.

I was 23 when this movie came out and it was an instant hit.

Everybody was laughing about the jokes and singing the songs long after.

Watching it again now, 33 years later, things have changed slightly.

It can and will still be considered an Austrian "cult movie".

But boy, is it actually BAD! Every single actor (even the known ones) seems like somebody they just got off the street and gave them a script to read. A lot of the voices are not the actor's ones and synchronization is abysmally bad. Just like any other aspect of it.

One thing that's still great is the music, if maybe only for sentimental reasons. But I found myself happily singing along after all that time.

It was cool seeing it again, but other than that I most certainly would not have sat through it.

Going by "value" to Austrian film-history and cult-factor, this would surely be a 10. Judging it just as a movie, a "1" would be generous. So 5 it is from me.