"Peter schiesst den Vogel ab" is a West German movie from 1959, so this one had its 60th anniversary this year and even if it says here on imdb that the first language is English, this is incorrect of course as everybody is speaking mostly German in here, even if there is an occasional line of English when the title character talks to foreign visitors. These are not uncommon of course as Peter is the man in charge of the guests at a hotel. The title literally translated means "Peter shoots the bird", which is in the German language, however, a symbolism of Peter being the one who really does something special, but not in a positive sense, but not really in a negative sense either, just in a clumsy (maybe even likable) sense. It is a bit difficult to explain because here almost nobody uses these words anymore. The film runs for under 1.5 hours and was directed by prolific filmmaker Géza von Cziffra. He worked with lead actor Peter Alexander on really many occasions. The Austrian was one of the biggest stars of its era here in Germany back then, which was certainly thanks to how likable he was and how much charisma he had. He knew he did not have gigantic range and versatility, so he only starred in comedies really and frequently these included singing, which was his other strength. This one here is described "only" as a comedy, but you can also add musical because there are several songs included, like not constantly, but here and there and I also say so because the film's title is really the name of the most defining song from this film. It is play on two occasions even, even if the second occasion, namely at the very end, is just really a shortened version. But it is catchy I liked it. I like Alexander's voice in general. The other song I liked was indirectly about bull fighting and that was a fun number too. You probably ask why oh why about bull fighting, how does it fit in the film's context because there is no such thing here in Central Europe. Well, the title character pretends to come from Argentina and breed bulls for a living on one occasion. And there was this moment when we have too guys in costume as a bull actually and that was so awkwardly funny really. Maybe even too absurd for Alexander because he kicks the two guys away at the end.
So yes, if there is any perspective from which you can appreciate this film (the most), then it is the guilty pleasure perspective. This scene was massive and there are other scenes really like basically everything involving the hotel director played by Oskar Sima. He was hilarious too, especially in this unintentional dancing segment. Or when he says something about a character who reads to another character what she wrote. I won't give you the exact line, but it included a certain amount of people dead and the director says if she does not stop and go to work, there will be one more. Now that was almostg too serious for this time and film genre and I wonder if they were a bit worried what audiences could think of such gravity. Haha different times. Still on other occasions they made sure the film stays as harmless as it gets like when we find out another character died (none we see) and add right after that she was at an ancient age. And there are more examples of how you can easily see they did want this film to stay entirely harmless. On a side note, you can see how old this film is even in the title because today we write "schießt". But let us not drift away. Another thing I liked here were the sets, which were pretty good, and the costumes that were even better. I am not only talking about the costumes linked to comedy like that bizarre outfit Peter wears at the end when skiing, but also in general. It was nice. They knew how to make this film visually appealing. Some of the comedy is linked to said skiing scenes that make a bit of fun about how he cannot ski at all, like early on when he is with the kids. Pay attention to how the title character is named Peter too. This already shows how much people loved him back then because they wanted to imply the main character is at least partially the actor too.
Now I mentioned a lot positive and maybe you wonder why my rating is this low then. Well there is a lot negative too sadly. And this refers to the entire film, in the sense of how the key stories and even some of the minor plots were so weak and unrealistic and uninteresting. I mean you could expect the big inheritance to be so defining here or the story about the woman who fakes her interest in Peter or the romance story, but it all feels very shallow and for the sake of it and if we manage to ignore Alexander's charme (admittedly not too easy), then there is literally nothing in this movie story-wise. Or at least nothing of quality. Germaine Demar I have seen in other films too and I kinda like her, so i was surprised how even she did do nothing for me here at all. By the way she is still alive today in late 2019 and same is true about Maria Sebaldt who will turn 90 next year, so it is kinda nice that at least two actresses from the cast here are still out there somewhere, which really is not a given for a movie this old. Now back to the film, somebody even added "shallow" as a key word here on imdb haha enough said about the story. So if you don't like Alexander as much as I do, you will probably really hate this one, but for me it kept the film from being a failure at least, but still I cannot give it a thumbs-up, even if I laughed (or at least smiled) more than I thought I would while watching. The comedy is frequently also really dated. If that is a good or bad thing, it is up to you to decide. It is sometimes so simple and innocent that I wish we could laugh more about stuff like that too. Or maybe it just wasn't well-written I am not sure. In any case, this film gets a thumbs-down from me. Not recommended, but I don't want to end this review without saying I am still glad Peter Alexander made these films and they are still shown today. May he rest in piece.
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