Gipfelglück im Dirndlrock (4 Stars)

This is a German erotic comedy made in 1972. The original title was "Gefährlicher Sex frühreifer Mädchen", which is slightly ambiguous, but I would translate it as "The dangerous sexuality of young girls". The title of the DVD release, shown above, means "Happiness on the mountaintop in a dirndl", which is an idiotic name for the film. There isn't a single dirndl in the film from beginning to end, and there's only one short scene involving mountain climbing. The only point in the new name is to jump up and say, "Buy me! I'm a Bavarian film!" It was released in America as "Private School Girls". That's the only name that makes sense, considering that the film is about a boarding school for girls in Hohenlachen.

The film begins with a court case in Munich. Alfons Kruse, the caretaker of the Hohenlachen boarding school, is on trial for inappropriate behaviour towards under-age girls. They have accused him of looking up their skirts. What they don't mention is that whenever they saw him looking they took off their panties to give him a better view. Poor Alfons.

In court the prosecution lawyer asks three of the girls to describe what happened in the school. This leads to three lengthy flashbacks. For some reason, the three testimonies by the girls have almost nothing to do with Alfons. He is only mentioned briefly in each report. The girls are more interested in telling the judge what they did in the school holidays.

The director Alois Brummer made 16 films, but this film has a very amateur feeling to it. The boarding school seems to have only eight girls, all of whom share the same bedroom. Apart from the court case not making sense, the casting is ridiculous. The supposedly under-age schoolgirls all look like they're at least 25 years old. When I checked IMDB to find the ages of the actresses I discovered that five of the eight girls have never appeared in any other films. And none of the ages were listed.

Are these girls under 18? It would be better to ask if they're under 28.

The film ends with poor, poor Alfons being sent to prison for three years. That's not fair. I would have looked up their skirts as well.