Beim nächsten Kuß knall ich ihn nieder! (1995)

The film presents, in a kind of revue, the life of the renowned comedy specialist who, until 1937, made one film hit after another, before fleeing Nazi Germany overnight and continuing his career in Hollywood, with considerably less success. In 33 dramatic scenes, the artistic life of Reinhold Schünzel is laid out, taking the viewer to Berlin, Karlsbad, Hollywood, Pacific Palisades, New York, and finally Munich. From 1933 onward, the former actor, now a star director, becomes a juggler in his own right, carefully gauging through his popular and original comedies how far he, classified as a “half-Jew” under Nazi doctrine, can go under the new rulers. At times, Schünzel’s life seems like the countless film roles he played from the First World War onward: sometimes a confidence trick, then again like straightforward theatrical ham, repeatedly a comedy and a tragedy, at times a morality tale, a soap opera, a road movie, and finally a crime film.