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Businessman Werneck (Rudolf Vogel) learns about the problems at a
boarding school he has founded - but instead of believing the claims of an
outraged teacher, he decides to go to the school undercover as a caretaker
and see for himself.
The teens of the school are in a bit of an uproar because of the
end-of-the-year music festival featuring a band contest, which the
school's band led by Peter (Peter Kraus) and Conny (Cornelia Froboess)
intends to win - and they have a good chance of winning too ... until that
is Peter's mother falls sick and needs an operation - which means Peter
ahs to work to pay for the operation and can no longer afford the school's
tuition, thus has to leave school to sell icecream on the street ...
His friends, above all Conny of course, think about ways of helping him
and ultimately decide to perform as a band in town to raise the money for
Peter's tuition.
Only problem: They have to do all their gigs after the school's curfew
and thus have to sneak out ... and are caught by Werneck posing as
caretaker. However, when Werneck learns what they are up to, he not only
shows sympathy, he also helps them to get good gigs and cover their backs.
Eventually though, when the school band plays a wedding, one of the
teachers, Ms Säuberlich (Loni Heuser), a guest at the wedding, catches
them and all hell breaks loose, which might result in the whole band being
expelled and certain teachers who sympathize with the students being fired
- as well as the caretaker Werneck of course ... but in his capacity of
the school's founder, Werneck pulls a few strings to keep the band at the
school, and in his capacity of caretaker, he pretends to steal one of the
school's valuable paintings (which is of course, like the whole school,
actually his) to come up with enough money for Peter's tuition.
Finally, at the day of the music festival, Ms Säuberlich identifies
Werneck as the thief of the painting and has him apprehended by the
police, while everybody at the festival, especially principal Sommer (Hans
Epskamp) is waiting for Werneck - the school's founder, not the caretaker,
nobody knows yet they are on and the same - to arrive as the guest of
honour ... and when Werneck the caretaker - who has since revealed his
real identity to the police and could no longer been hold - arrives as the
guest of honour instead, everybody is more than puzzled, but in an
emotional speech, Werneck sets a few things right, explains why he has
done what he has done, and is full of praise for his friends the students
and especially the band - who win the band contest to noone's real
surprise -, and promises to install a special music class.
And in the end too, Conny and Peter become a couple.
Ralf Wolter can be seen in a small role as the school's former
alcoholic caretaker, Peter Vogel plays Peter Kraus' best friend.
By the late 1950's, Peter Kraus and Cornelia Froboess aka Conny were the
recording stars of West Germany, so teaming them up in a teenage musical
comedy seemed like a good idea - and turned into gold at the box office.
The film itself is pretty much as cheesy as my synopsis makes it to be,
maybe even more so, and on the surface it has no redeeming qualities, even
the music is only rarely above mediocre.
That said though, if you do not take the film seriously but as what it
is, a silly musical comedy, the film is also wonderful, full of comedy
that borders so-bad-it's-good territory and vintage pop music that is at
times almost ridiculous (though it helps to understand German to fully
appreciate the musical interludes), and the overall camp factor of the
film is enjoyably high. Fun, but only if you're prepared to ahve fun.
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