L'Affaire Pichler

This is a funny and very clever comedy. Outstanding is Max Pallenberg, pater familias, officious head cashier, and a very confused individual whose language, facial expressions, general state of excitement carry on non-stop and in the largely stunned company of his colleague, Heinz Ruehmann, and set-upon daughter, the very wonderful Dolly Haas. Pallenberg, a Jew, was driven out of Germany in '33 and died a year later in an airplane crash in Czechoslovakia. The Jewish actor who played Kalapka died at Dachau in '41. He joins the sad ranks of Dora Gerson, Kurt Gerron, and many other. Heinz Ruehmann put in a fine performance as he always does. He prospered in Nazi Germany and even divorced his Jewish wife to further his career. I suppose he atoned for all this by his wonderful remake of the Kapitaen von Koepernick.

Max Pallenberg and Heinz Ruhmann are two employees at an out-of-town branch of a Viennese bank. Ruhmann wants to marry Pallenberg's daughter, Dolly Haas. Pallenberg has his doubts as to Ruhmann's steadiness. So when he is ordered to take 7,000 schillings to the home office, he takes Ruhmann with him to get a better understanding of the young man. But when they arrive, the office is closed for the day. By the next morning, Pallenberg has lost the money.

This may be a comedy, but only in the classical sense of the situation at the end being better than it was at the start. To an American, a comedy is what is traditionally called a farce. While the two leads, Pallenberg and Ruhmann offer performances that are occasionally laugh-provoking in their initial and final stiff formality, it provoked in me a sense of sadness of scrambling for small advantages that grow into wild swings of fortune.

This is not to say that this is a bad movie. It is excellent, and the two men are excellent. But the ending is normative, and urges people to stick in their ruts. That will produce rewards that are, in the end, surer than living large and hoping you don't get caught.