Urlaubsgrüße aus dem Unterhöschen (4½ Stars)

This is a Bavarian sex comedy made in 1973. Its title means "Holiday greetings from the panties". It sounds better in German than in English. Today is the first time I've seen it, and I love it. The humour is bawdy, relying on alternation between erotic farce and slapstick. It's a work of genius. Why were such films only made in Germany? And more to the point, why aren't they made any more?

The film is about a guest house in the Bavarian alps. It's owned by the village's mayor. He's miserable that the regular hotel guests are so poor, contributing nothing to the local economy. Two local businessmen have a foolproof scheme to make things better. First, they drive the regulars away by playing loud music and letting the waitresses flirt with the men in front of their wives. Then they advertise the guest house as a luxury resort in all of Germany's major cities.

The businessmen are Bob and Bert Vogel, played by the real life brothers Gernot and Gunther Möhner. Unlike yesterday's film, they're not identical twins. You might recognise Bob, shown on the left. He plays the reporter Bernd Mittler in the Housewife Report films. He's the main character in this film. Everyone is having sex, except for Bob. Whenever he gets close there's a mishap, and he has to run away with his pants down.

This is Bob with Kati, the mayor's daughter. She's Bob's true love, even though he chases every woman in sight. Don't expect to see any hot and steamy action. Something happens to interrupt Bob, every time. There might be a crisis in the house that he's called to attend to, but most often the problem is Frenzi.

Frenzi Kesselbach is the daughter of a couple from Frankfurt. Her age isn't stated, except that she's just a child, and she's not allowed to drink alcohol. She looks adult to me, however much she grins, but she acts like a child. She's constantly playing practical jokes on the other guests, such as shooting itching powder or throwing potato dumplings. Bob is her favourite target.

The jokes aren't original, but do they need to be? There's the classic mix up of hotel rooms. "What are you doing in my room? My husband will be here any moment". The husband will be disappointed when he finds out what he missed.

It's a hard life for the husband. His wife won't let him enjoy an ice cream, because she says he needs to lose weight.

And he's also a target of Frenzi's pranks.....

A lot of the humour is based on the stereotypes of the different regions (former states) of Germany. Even if you understand German, you might miss the jokes if you're not well acquainted with Germany.

As is usual in the Bavarian films, the women are sexually insatiable, whatever part of Germany they come from. If Ricky doesn't stop, she'll kill Bert. Three times wasn't enough for her.

This is probably the best Bavarian sex comedy I've seen. It's directed by Walter Boos, who was responsible for some of the later Schoolgirl Report films. It's never been released in English, but if you can speak German I strongly recommend it... if you can find it. Ten years ago a large number of the 1970's Erotic Classics were released on DVD, but they're now out of print. Unfortunately.