Musterknaben is an East German romantic comedy film

Romantic comedy film

Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...

, directed by Johannes Knittel. It was released in 1959.

Plot

Bassi and Edwin are the two laziest, most irresponsible construction workers in their workers' brigade. When they fall in love with their neighbors Thea and Susi, they pretend to be reliable young men and accompany their friends to a meeting of the local chapter house. To keep up appearances, the two are forced to undertake several duties which they would not have dreamed of doing otherwise. The plot turns into a chain of comical mistakes, but eventually the two new couples reunite and all ends well.

Cast

• Hartmut Reck as Bassi
• Rolf Herricht
  Rolf Herricht
  Rolf Oskar Ewald Günter Herricht , was an East German comedian.-Early life:Herricht graduated from school in 1943 after passing a 'War Abitur', a form of an Abitur designated to free school pupils to be mobilized...
  
   as Edwin
• Brigitte Krause as Thea
• Gudrun Wicherta s Susi
• Erwin Geschonneck
  Erwin Geschonneck
  Erwin Geschonneck was a German actor. His biggest success occurred in the German Democratic Republic, where he was considered one of the most famous actors of the time.-Early life:...
  
   as Susi's father
• Peter Marx as Kaiser
• Fritz Diez
  Fritz Diez
  Not to be confused with the West German industrialist Fritz Dietz.Fritz Diez was a German actor, producer, director and theater manager.-Early life:...
  
   as Weber
• Paul R. Henker as Scholz
• Hans Klering as Grimm
• Werner Lierck as Tetzlaff
• Gerd Biewer as Graf
• Sabine Thalbach as Röschen
• Jean Brahn as Fritz
• Agnes Kraus as old teacher
• Lotte Loebinger as Klara
• Werner Dissel
  Werner Dissel
  Werner Friedrich Dissel was a German actor and director.-Biography:Dissel's began working as a newspaper photographer in the late 1920s. After the Nazis' rise to power, he became a member of an antifascist group headed by Harro Schulze-Boysen, and was involved in the resistance newspaper Wille zum...
  
  as uncredited role

Reception

The West German Catholic Film Service regarded the film as one "with a weak plot line, the same old gags used over and over again." The film critic of the journal Cinema wrote that "even in the 1950s, it was not witty."

External links

• Musterknaben on DEFA Sternstunden.