Liebesgrüße aus der Lederhose 5 (4 Stars)

The fifth film in the Lederhose series was released in December 1978, less than a year after the fourth film. It was obviously made with a bigger budget than any of the previous films, as shown by the special effects, the props and the scenes that required stuntmen. Even the story, written by the director Gunter Otto using the pseudonym F. G. Marcus, has more consistency than any of the previous instalments. If one film in the series deserves a Hollywood remake, this is it.

The film begins with Sepp Kirchlechner, played by Peter Steiner, complaining to his friend Willi about his poor life as a farmer in the mountains. Then he receives a letter from a postman, a special delivery involving a trek into the mountains, telling him he's inherited the house and land of his Aunt Edith. This causes Sepp to break into song, accompanied by an invisible orchestra, and the two men dance happily in the mountains. Life is good.

Aunt Edith's house is in a poor state, but at least they find a pantry stocked with enough plum jam to last for a hundred years. Sepp and Willi will never need to go hungry. But even more exciting is that they find an aeroplane in the barn. Sepp decides to open a flying school. Don't worry, he covers up the swastika before the first guests arrive. He hires a flying instructor from France, and he renovates Aunt Edith's house so that it's suitable accommodation.

The first guests are five horny schoolgirls from Munich. They want to learn to fly in the daytime and have sex with the local Bavarian farmers at night. They're most interested in the flying instructor Philippe, but he's only interested in Sepp's daughter Uschi.

Sepp's arch enemy, Mayor Alois Brummberger, is unhappy with Sepp's financial success, so he hires men to sabotage the plane. He pays them 100 Marks each, but he doesn't reckon with the girls. They seduce the men, and the supposed saboteurs become unpaid volunteer assistants at the flying school. Never underestimate the power of German schoolgirls!

To my great surprise there was a lengthy car chase. Five cars, six minutes, including a police car, with multiple collisions and crashes. This was very well filmed, the equal of anything Hollywood had to offer in the 1970's.

In case you were so excited by the car chase that you forgot this is an erotic comedy, you're reminded when the last car crashes into a lake where the schoolgirls are bathing naked. If they were good girls they would check the men for injuries and help them out of the water. But they're bad girls, so their only interest is to rip off the men's clothes and seduce them. It's too bad that Ottokar Schulze, on the right, is homosexual. He's terrified of naked girls.

All's well that ends well. Peter Steiner enjoys a beer with Rosl Mayr in the beer tent. In the previous two films Rosl's character wasn't named. Here at the table Sepp calls her Rosl. I'm sure they were the best of friends off screen. She was a wonderful lady, it would have been impossible not to love her.