Kohlhiesels Töchter

Kohlhiesel's Daughters

Innkeeper Mathias Kohlhiesel has two daughters, fetching Gretel and her sister Liesel, a bit of a bristly betty. Farmer Peter Xaver is in love with Gretel, but Kohlhiesel won't give her in marriage until her sister Liesel has tied the knot. When nobody turns up who is willing to take on that task, Xaver's pal Seppl urges his friend to marry Liesel himself – on a temporary basis. Xaver has no idea that Seppl is also in love with Gretel. He also has no idea that his uncouth treatment of Liesel after the wedding will have quite the opposite effect than he had planned…

This wintery, droll farmer's farce was the most popular comedy that Ernst Lubitsch made in Germany. With high exaggeration, to the amusement of everyone involved, a work of great literature becomes a farcical bit of drollery. In 1947, Lubitsch called it "The Taming of the Shrew relocated to the Bavarian mountains". "Kohlhiesel's Daughters" is an early race to (over) the top, with the Lubitsch lightening already visible ahead. In 1984, Hans Helmut Prinzler said, "Action and comedy are developed from the below-freezing temperatures, culminating in slides where the bodies become objects of a joyful awkwardness".

Source: 74. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)