Ach Egon! (1961)

As a young medical student, pediatrician Waldemar Weber married his landlady out of gratitude so that he could legitimize her illegitimate son, Egon Kummer. He is now married to Henny, née Nathusius, but has always kept his adopted son a secret from his wife. On the very day of his first wedding anniversary, his old university friend, now the lawyer Dr. Wehling, tells him that he has settled the estate of the deceased woman and now intends to introduce her son to his stepfather. They will have to go to Hamburg for this. Weber is distraught and wants to cover everything up, since he has kept all of this from his wife until now. As a pretext, the two agree to arrange a meeting with a supposed fellow student, Eric Helgers—a name the lawyer happens to read on the spine of a book. At the same time, Helga Lüders has arrived to visit her longtime friend Henny Weber. Helga Lüders is a writer, but publishes under the male pseudonym Eric Helgers. When the two men say they intend to meet Eric Helgers, the women suspect infidelity. Henny’s mother backs them up, as her parents, the Nathusius couple, have also arrived for a visit. Henny’s father in particular, who has supported Weber financially, hopes that Waldemar and Henny will finally have a child and that the longed-for grandchild will soon be within reach. When Egon finally turns up at the door, it emerges not only that he is a monkey trainer, but also that he has brought his chimpanzees Kiki, Koko, and Kaka with him. Waldemar has his hands full trying to hide him from the other visitors, so he quickly stashes him in a wall cupboard. The meeting with Eric Helgers can therefore be called off, which is also supposed to reassure Henny. In the course of the jealous quarrels, however, it has become clear that Eric Helgers is a woman—yet Waldemar and his friend Dr. Wehling still do not realize that she is the Helga who is there with them. To dispel the baseless suspicions, a meeting with the writer is proposed: she is said to be at the reception halls during the bock-beer festival; all that is missing is the woman herself. Egon has an idea: he disguises himself and plays her. But there are still plenty of complications to get through, and awkward situations to endure, before Egon’s existence can finally be explained. In the end, it turns out that Theodor Nathusius, Waldemar’s father-in-law, is Egon’s biological father.