''The Spessart Inn'' (german: Das Wirtshaus im Spessart) is a 1958 West German musical comedy film directed by

Kurt Hoffmann Kurt Hoffmann (12 November 1910 – 25 June 2001) was a German film director, the son of Carl Hoffmann. He directed 48 films between 1938 and 1971. He ran a production company Independent Film along with Heinz Angermeyer. His 1958 film ' ...

. It starred

Liselotte Pulver Liselotte Pulver (born 11 October 1929), sometimes credited as Lilo Pulver, is a Swiss actress. Pulver was one of the biggest stars of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, where she often was cast as a tomboy. She is well known for her hearty an ...

and

Carlos Thompson Juan Carlos Mundin-Schaffter, known as Carlos Thompson, (7 June 1923 – 10 October 1990) was an Argentine actor. Career Of German and Swiss descent, he played leading roles on stage and in films in Argentina. He went to Hollywood in the 1950s ...

Plot

In the late years of the 18th century, Felix and Peter, two

journeymen A journeyman, journeywoman, or journeyperson is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that fie ...

, are travelling across the

Spessart Spessart is a ''Mittelgebirge'', a range of low wooded mountains, in the States of Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. It is bordered by the Vogelsberg, Rhön and Odenwald. The highest elevation is the Geiersberg at 586 metres above sea level. Etymo ...

hills to

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

. Scared of the bandits that plague these parts, especially after a brief encounter with them, the two are glad to find an inn in the middle of the forest. However, it turns out that they have wandered into a den of thieves. The owners are in league with the bandits, who this very night plan to abduct Franziska, the Comtesse von Sandau, who is travelling through the forest with a group including her fiancé, Baron Sperling. Their coach is waylaid by a trap and the bandits direct them to the nearby inn. The waitress warns the journeymen of impending danger and they pass on the warning to the nobles. During the night, the brigands arrive. To escape, the Comtesse switches places with Felix and, in a man's clothes, escapes with Peter. Felix (as Comtesse), Franziska's maid and the pastor are taken to the bandits' lair. The bandits send Baron Sperling on his way to carry the demand for 20,000 Gulden to Graf Sandau, Franziska's father. When Franziska arrives at her father's castle, he refuses to pay the ransom for the commoner who has taken his daughter's place. Instead, Graf Sandau decides to send the military against the bandits. Franziska thus rides to the bandits' lair and pretends to be a highwayman herself. The bandit leader accepts her as a henchman, but makes her sleep in his hut. In the morning he discovers her true identity but keeps this information from his men. When Graf Sandau finds out that the Comtesse has gone to the bandits he sends Baron Sperling to the inn with the ransom money. The soldiers shadow him but the plan to follow the bandits back to their lair fails. Meanwhile, at the bandits' lair, their corporal finds out that the "Comtesse" they have imprisoned is a man. Franziska, on the pretense that she wants to find out the truth about the prisoner, switches back places with Felix, which saves his life but makes her a prisoner. The corporal wants to kill her and a confrontation ensues. The leader sides with the prisoners and during the fight, the parson escapes. The soldiers find the bandits' lair, but the leader snatches the Comtesse and rides off. Franziska conceals the bandit leader in her father's castle. He reveals to her that he is in fact the son of an Italian Count from whom Graf Sandau borrowed money in the past, which he never repaid. After his father's death he came to Germany to regain his money from Graf Sandau, but before he could do so he was taken prisoner by the bandits. They forced him to join their band and eventually he became their leader. The planned abduction of the Comtesse was intended to make Graf Sandau finally pay the money he owed. The soldiers search the castle and the bandit leader flees. However, he returns and elopes with Franziska who was about to marry Baron Sperling—a purely financial match set up by her father. The bandit leader/count takes Franziska in lieu of the money he is owed and they drive off in a wagon.

Cast

as Comtesse Franziska von Sandau *

as Bandit Captain *

Günther Lüders Günther Lüders (5 March 1905 – 1 March 1975) was a German actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1934 and 1975. He lived in Urfeld am Walchensee from 1954 until 1975. Selected filmography * '' Count Woronzeff'' (1934), as Cousi ...

as Baron Eberhard Sperling *

Rudolf Vogel Rudolf Vogel (born 10 November 1900, Planegg – died 9 August 1967, Munich) was a German film and television actor. He was the father of Peter Vogel, the father-in-law of Austrian actress Gertraud Jesserer and the grandfather of actor-journalis ...

as Parucchio *

Wolfgang Neuss Wolfgang Neuss (3 December 1923 – 5 May 1989) was a German actor and Kabarett artist. Beginning in the mid-1960s, he also became famous for his political engagement, first for the SPD, then for the extra-parliamentary opposition, ''APO''. H ...

as Knoll * as Funzel *

Ina Peters Ina Peters (1928–2004) was an Austrian stage and film actress.Goble p.195 Selected filmography * '' Bon Voyage'' (1954) * ''André and Ursula'' (1955) * ''Kitty and the Great Big World'' (1956) * ''Charley's Aunt'' (1956) * ''The Spessart Inn' ...

as Maid Barbara *

Kai Fischer Kai Fischer (born 18 March 1934) is a German film actress. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1955 and 1999. Selected filmography * ''Operation Sleeping Bag'' (1955) * '' The Bath in the Barn'' (1956) * '' Sand, Love and Salt'' (1957) * ...

as Bettina *

Veronika Fitz Veronika Fitz (28 March 1936 – 2 January 2020) was a German television actress. She also had some solo-shows on the stage and produced a few singles. Selected filmography * '' The Vulture Wally'' (1956) * ''The Spessart Inn'' (1958) * '' The H ...

as Louise *

Herbert Hübner Herbert Hübner (6 February 1889 – 27 January 1972) was a German stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1921 and 1966. He was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) and died in Munich, Germany. Selected fil ...

as Graf Sandau *

Hubert von Meyerinck Hubert "Hubsi" von Meyerinck (23 August 1896 – 13 May 1971) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 280 films between 1921 and 1970. Biography Meyerinck was born in Potsdam, Brandenburg, the son of Friedrich von Meyerinck (1858� ...

as Obrist von Teckel *

Helmut Lohner Helmuth Lohner (24 April 1933 – 23 June 2015) was an Austrian actor, theatre director, and from 1997 to 2006 director of the Theater in der Josefstadt. Early life Born in Vienna, Lohner initially trained as a commercial artist, while also taki ...

as Felix *

Hans Clarin Hans Clarin (14 September 1929 – 28 August 2005) was a German actor. He became a well-known voice actor of characters in children audio plays, particularly the kobold ''Pumuckl'' (including its TV and cinematic film adaptations), the German voic ...

as Peter *

Paul Esser Paul Esser (24 April 1913 – 20 January 1988) was a German stage and television actor and voice actor. He is remembered for playing the lead role in the Sender Freies Berlin version of the detective series ''Tatort''. Esser was born in Gel ...

as Bandit Corporal *

Otto Storr Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fr ...

as Parson *

Karl Hanft Karl Hanft (25 July 1904 – 2 February 1982) was an Austrian film actor. Selected filmography * ''Shock Troop (film), Shock Troop'' (1934) * ''Enemies (1940 film), Enemies'' (1940) * ''The Endless Road'' (1943) * ''Tonelli (film), Tonelli'' (194 ...

as Jacob *

Heini Göbel Heini is both a given name and a surname. It is mainly a masculine given name in German-speaking countries, but a feminine given name in Finland. However, in Wales, it is a both masculine and feminine given name, meaning 'healthy and spirited'. Cur ...

as Coachman Gottlieb *

Ernst Brasch Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst" * Anton Ernst (1975 ...

as Servant Anton *

Vera Complojer Vera Complojer (1896–1969) was an Austrian stage and film actress.Giesen p.231 Selected filmography * ''Maria Ilona'' (1939) * '' Her First Experience'' (1939) * ''Detours to Happiness'' (1939) * ''Wunschkonzert'' (1940) * '' The Sinful Village ...

as Landlady *

Anette Karmann Anette Ingegerd Olsson (born 21 June 1971), known by the stage name Anette Olzon, is a Swedish singer, best known as the former lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish from 2007 to 2012. She is also the vocalist of Swedish cla ...

as Kitchen Maid Adele *

Georg Lehn Georg may refer to: * ''Georg'' (film), 1997 *Georg (musical), Estonian musical * Georg (given name) * Georg (surname) * , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker See also * George (disambiguation) George may refer to: People * George (given name) * ...

as Stadtbote *

Ralf Wolter Ralf Wolter (26 November 1926 – 14 October 2022) was a German stage and screen actor. Wolter appeared in nearly 220 films and television series in his over 60 years as a character actor. Life and career Wolter began his long career on the B ...

as Bandit

Production

The script was based on an 1826 novella by

Wilhelm Hauff Wilhelm Hauff (29 November 180218 November 1827) was a Württembergian poet and novelist. Early life Hauff was born in Stuttgart, the son of August Friedrich Hauff, a secretary in the Württemberg ministry of foreign affairs, and Hedwig Wilhelmi ...

and written by Heinz Pauck and Luiselotte Enderle. Curt Hanno Gutbrod also worked on the script. An earlier film version of Hauff's story had been released in 1923, directed by Adolf Wenter and starring Friedrich Berger and Ellen Kürty. The film was shot at the

Bavaria Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Firs ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

with sets designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Robert Herlth Robert Herlth (2 May 1893 – 6 January 1962) was a German art director. He was one of the leading designers of German film sets during the 1920s and 1930s.Reimer & Reimer p.146 Filmography * ''Masks'' (1920) * '' Island of the Dead'' (1921) * ...

and

Kurt Herlth Kurt Herlth (1896–1966) was a German art director known for his designs of film sets. His brother Robert Herlth was also an art director active in the German film industry, and the two men worked together a number of times.Bock & Bergfelder p.1 ...

. '' Schloss Mespelbrunn'', actually located within the Spessart hills, was used as the castle of Graf Sandau. Another location was the market square of

Miltenberg Miltenberg () is a town in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named district and has a population of over 9,000. Geography Location The old town lies on the Main ...

, a town between the Spessart and the

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried'' (the northeastern section ...

Release

''The Spessart Inn'' premiered on 15 January 1958 at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin. The film was entered into the 1958 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for the Palme d'Or. Kurt Hoffmann's '' The Haunted Castle'' and '' Glorious Times at the Spessart Inn'' were sequels of a sort to this film.

Reception

The Filmbewertungsstelle awarded the film ''Prädikat: Wertvoll''. It also received the in 1958. In 1960 it was awarded a "

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten. ...

" for "Artistically Best Film of the Year" and in 1961 the ''Preis der deutschen Filmkritik'' for "Best Film". Liselotte Pulver received the ''Filmband in Silber'' for "Best Actress" at the

Deutscher Filmpreis The German Film Award (), also known as Lola after its prize statuette, is the national film award of Germany. It is presented at an annual ceremony honouring cinematic achievements in the German film industry. Besides being the most important ...

in 1958 for her role as Franziska. The ''Lexikon des internationalen Films'' calls the film "a colourful, delightfully spooky and cheerful film with a parodistic touch". More recently, theatres in several towns in Germany, including Mespelbrunn, Fulda or Donauwörth have staged plays/musicals that were based on the film or at least included some of the elements it had added to Hauff's original story.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spessart Inn, The 1958 films 1958 musical comedy films 1950s adventure comedy films 1950s historical comedy films 1950s historical musical films German historical comedy films German musical comedy films German adventure comedy films German historical musical films West German films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Kurt Hoffmann Films based on works by Wilhelm Hauff Films set in the 18th century Films set in forests Cross-dressing in film Constantin Film films Films shot at Bavaria Studios Spessart 1950s German films