Ball im Savoy (1955)

After their honeymoon, which took them to Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, and Naples, Madeleine and Paul are on their way home, already looking forward to continuing their honeymoon in the comfort of their own home. But they hadn’t counted on the problems that now lie ahead. Paul receives a telegram from his former girlfriend Tangolita, who won’t leave the newly married man in peace. When they parted, she had made Paul promise that he would take her out for a splendid evening sometime later. Now, at this most inconvenient moment, she is trying to make him keep that promise. In his desperation, Paul can think only of his old friend Mustapha Bei. The attaché at the diplomatic mission—divorced six times, sufficiently schooled in diplomacy by those marriages, and blessed with a good sense of humor—is supposed to straighten out this unpleasant situation. But his efforts with Tangolita are in vain; she insists on having supper with Paul at the Ball at the Savoy. Paul and Mustapha, however, have come up with a new plan: Paul will go to the ball at the Savoy on the pretext that he wants to meet his “old friend” McKenny, the mysterious, famous conductor of the ball orchestra, so that he can dine with Tangolita there in peace. Madeleine suspects what is really going on and goes to the ball too. There, she catches her Paul flirting passionately with his former girlfriend. Without hesitation, she grabs the first gentleman at hand, the young, shy assessor Victor, to pay her husband back in kind. Then a huge scandal erupts in the ballroom. In her overwhelming jealousy, Madeleine hurls at Paul the accusation that she has been unfaithful to him. Since these words are also broadcast over the loudspeakers for everyone to hear, the whole city is talking about it. The press celebrates Madeleine as a “heroine of marriage,” and the divorce is all but finalized. Literally at the last minute, McKenny—who is actually Daisy Parker, Madeleine’s cousin—arrives and saves the nearly ruined marriage with a ruse. Madeleine, gentle as a fawn, and Paul, now wiser after a marital lesson, become a happy couple again. But Daisy doesn’t go away empty-handed either, as Mustapha assures her that he will never leave her, his seventh wife.