Frau Wirtin hat auch eine Nichte (3 Stars)

This is a Hungarian film, made in German in 1969. It's the third film in the series about Susanne Delburg, the notorious owner of an inn in the German town of Giessen. The film's title means "The innkeeper also has a niece", but it was released in America as "House of Pleasure". The alternative title is actually relevant. I'll get to it below.

First, my apologies. I wrote about the first film in the series, "Die Wirtin von der Lahn", three years ago. I wanted to watch all six films in a row, but I forgot. It happens. But that's not the only mistake I made. I skipped the second film and went straight to the third. I'll watch the second film later this month. I promise.

In this film Susanne is no longer the owner of the inn on the Lahn. (The Lahn is a river that flows through Giessen). Maybe she gave it up in the second film. I'll have to watch it and see. She's on the road again, travelling with her theatre troupe. They're travelling through Alsace, when they come to a large mansion. They go to the door, leaving Ferdinand (who we know from the first film) to guard their carriage. French troops come and mistake him for Baron von Ambras, an opponent of Napoleon Bonaparte. The real Baron is hiding. Susanne finds the Baron's baby son and takes him with her. They head to Paris to speak with Napoleon and tell him about the mistake.

Napoleon has proposed to marry Marie Louise, the daughter of the Emperor of Austria, in order to gain a political ally against Russia. The Austrian ambassador delivers a message that the marriage won't be allowed, because there are rumours that he's incapable of fathering children. When she arrives at the palace, Susanne hears about this, so she pretends that the baby is her illegitimate child, fathered by Napoleon. Napoleon knows this isn't true, but he backs up the story so that he can claim to be a real man.

The title "House of Pleasure" is relevant because most of the action takes place in a small palace called Monplaisir. It was built by Louis XIV as a place to live with his mistresses, but now Napoleon uses it to entertain his diplomatic guests.

Susanne doesn't really have a niece. She pretends to be her own niece, a decent young girl, nothing like her notorious aunt. In an amusing sequence, she walks in and out of doors, changing her clothes quickly, so that she can be aunt and niece in quick succession. She's an actress, after all.

I don't think any world leader has been mocked in film as often as Napoleon. There have been several films which cast doubt on his virility. Is this based on the truth? I don't know.

The text on the DVD box describes the film as "Erotic Nostalgia". That's stretching it. Apart from brief glimpses of female nudity, there's nothing erotic about it. It's a historical comedy, wrapped around real events. In one of the final scenes Napoleon says to Susanne, "This must never be recorded in the history books". That's a line often spoken in films which speculate about what might really have happened. As things turned out, Napoleon married Marie Louise on 1st April 1810. I like to think that Susanne Delburg helped him, even if she's not mentioned in the history books.

P.S. I was drinking a delicious glass of Eberbach-Schäfer's Spätburgunder mit Lemberger while watching the film. Life is good.