Mailman Mueller (1953) User Reviews (3)

Anything for an inheritance

[Chip_douglas · 6 November 2004]

Titus Muller loves dogs, but as a postman he gets little love in return. Still, he has a lovely wife and lots of red haired offspring. When all of them get invited to see their auntie Anna in Italy, they travel there by bicycle. It soon becomes clear that wealthy old Anna has invited no less than 132 members of the Muller family to her enormous mansion to find out which one of them is best suited to look after her dog. All of them line up in a degrading line so this nasty Queen Elizabeth II lookalike can dismiss them one by one. I bet you can guess which family she picks, or else the movie would be over pretty soon.

When they finally sign the contract, the soundtrack score blazes like some kind of biblical epic. Obviously money is holy to these people. The dog sets it's paw print and the family moves into the mansion. Some time later, and for no good reason at all, the old bankers sing a song for Titus, and after this Dick van Dyke routine Heinz Ruhmann gets to do his Chaplin imitation once again when he stumbles home drunk.

Now a national hero, women start throwing themselves at Titus feet but he remains true to his Kaninchen (as he calls his wife). Unfortunately, when one of their own little Opie's accuses him of infidelity, his 'bunny' sides with the kid. Actually, the dog is the frisky one in this family: after a romp in a haystack with another canine (thankfully only implied), this spoiled rich pup goes home, closes the door behind him (!) and leaves another knocked up girlfriend standing on the porch.

A depressed Titus gets drunk again (but less amusingly so) and wakes up next to Miss Belle, the cabaret star. From there on it is all downhill for Herr Muller, because the usual message in these comedies of inheritance is: a simple hard working life is better than a stack full of money. The exception is if you use your wealth for one good deed early on in the picture, then everything will turn out alright.

3 out of 10

Mailman Rühmann

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 June 2016]

"Briefträger Müller" or "Mailman Müller" is a German color film from 1953, so this one will have its 65th anniversary soon being from less than a decade after World War II. It was the best period probably in terms of roles and performance by popular German actor Heinz Rühmann. And the title already gives away what kind of character he plays in this 90-minute film. Taking a very basic look at it, it is once again Rühmann's usual mix of comedy and drama (and a good message). You could argue that he may not have the greatest range, but even if that was true, then he makes up for it with his mesmerizing screen presence and immense charisma). Lets just agree that he made good choices in terms of the characters he played. In this film here, we also get the rare honor of seeing him as a director. And that was not the film's problem, at least not the major problem. The major problem for me was that I just did not find the story interesting at all or that I cared a lot about the mailman's rose to wealth and what happened to him until he decided to go back to his roots. I still believe Rühmann elevated the material a lot and it would have been much more uninteresting and dragging with most other actors playing the title character. Nonetheless the bad outweighs the good and I give this movie a thumbs-down. Nowhere near Rühmann's best from the 1950s. Thumbs down.

Not a bad picture

[cynthiahost · 8/10 · 6 November 2009]

I'm having to write this article all over again, because a error or a virus hit my computer and froze it up. I'm writing it on my internet player.This isn't a bad movie. It may not be Hienzes best film. But it's no different than Dianna Durbans first and only film in color. This is his first color feature since his comeback.It's now available in the united states and Canada from Geman language videos and DVD," germandvd.net It's on 0 region disk and can play on up to date minus plus DVD players and recorder machines. May drag on some but it works.Although it's advertised on their web on VHS , you got to ask for the DVD version. Hienz plays a postman who struggles to make ends meet for his family.His wife Charlotte,played by Heli Finkenzller. His older daughter who's in love with

Karlhienz, Oscar Sima and Else Revals son.Their two younger sons ones a toddler.Then as they are having lunch, he receives a letter from his Aunt with urgency that all the family visit her. So they all pack up and bicycle up to his Aunts. As it turns out so does the rest of the relatives too. The old aunt is dressed up to look like queen Victoria. Their meeting is unsuccessful.So they all pack up and head back home but not before they have a sound of music type picnic at the Heimat mountains.Well later on Titus gets another letter from stuffy Auntie that they are needed.Wel Titus finds out that he and his family has been chosen to care for the late aunts dog and their money that comes with cause the dog owns the estate. As long as the dog is alive. Well he and Charlotte have a fight about it and he ends up sleeping in a separate room with the dog, platonic of course. The wealth gets into his head that he forgets his family and goes out and haves a good time while Charlotte stays home and cares for the kids. Poor Charlotte. He ends up meeting a singer and actress name Mirabell and he starts having what seems to look like an innocent affair until they get so drunk he wakes up in bed with her. Nothing happened but it scares him. Then he puts a news paper ad for dog owners cause he wants to have the dog be mated with another dog . So a lot of people show up with their dogs and his and dog chooses by smell. It ends up white one. Well when the dog gets pregnant, It dies on the operation table. He loses the estate and what it look likes the estate goes to a foundation. Ccharloote still mad at him as his daughter and Karlheinzgets married they make up, As I said this wasn't a great movie . The problem was that the humor and story is slow. But it sin' bad