Parts
About
This is a delightful film even if you cannot understand the language. Wikipedia's plot summary will provide the basic idea for this beautifully photographed film.
Erich Kastner, the author of the 1949 novel, introduces the film and narrates.
Wikipedia...
Plot summary
Two nine-year-old girls--rude Lisa Palfy (orig. Luise Palfy) from Vienna, and respectful shy Lottie Horn (orig. Lotte Korner) from Munich--meet on a summer camp in Bohrlaken on Lake Bohren (orig. 'Seebuhl am Buhlsee'). Lisa has curly hair; Lottie wears braids. Apart from that, they look alike.
They have never seen each other before, but soon find out that they are identical twins. It turns out that their parents divorced, each keeping one of the girls. The two girls decide it is unfair that neither of them has ever been told that she is a twin, or that her other parent is still living. They decide to trade places at the end of the summer so that Lottie will have a chance to get to know her father and Lisa will get to meet her mother. Lottie curls her hair, Lisa braids hers, and both go off to where they have never been before. The adventure begins.
While many adults are surprised at the changes in each of the girls after they return from camp ("Lottie" has suddenly forgotten how to cook, gets in a fight at school, and becomes a terrible student, while "Lisa" has begun to keep a close eye on the housekeeper's bookkeeping, will no longer eat her favorite food, and becomes a model student), no one suspects that the girls are not who they claim to be.
When Lottie (pretending to be Lisa) finds out that her father is planning to remarry, she becomes very ill and stops writing to her sister in Munich.
Meanwhile, Lottie's mother comes across a picture of the two girls that was taken while they were at summer camp. She quickly realizes what has happened and Lisa tells her the entire story. The discovery turns out to have come just in time. The girls' mother calls her ex-husband in Vienna to tell him what has happened and to find out why Lottie has stopped writing. When she hears that her daughter is ill, she and Lisa immediately travel to Vienna to be with her.
The four of them (father, mother, Lisa and Lottie) are still in Vienna for the girls' birthday. The girls tell their parents that they don't need any presents on this birthday or ever again as long as they don't have to be separated again. The parents talk it over, realize that they are still in love and decide to get remarried.
MargheritaDTorbiera, IMDb reviewer, wrote...
There have been many remakes of this movie, mainly in the US and in Germany, but this is the one and only real one!!! Following the book line by line, even the authors comments (given by the author Erich Kastner himself in the movie!) on what is happening, the story is highly enjoyable and more than touching!
- Archive
- Internet Archive, in More feature films
- Licence or status
- The Internet Archive states none for this item.
- Credit
- Josef von Baky
- Who can watch
- The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed