Blau blüht der Enzian (1973)

The International Hotel Management School at Schloss Thannberg near Kitzbühel: Director Ponelli has just sent his students off on winter break as the worst class ever and gone home to his wife when chaos begins. The students, led by rebellious Pinky, secretly return to the castle to enjoy a free winter vacation there. The only person who was supposed to stay behind was Lilo, the caretaker Haselmeier’s niece, who was meant to keep the stove fired. But she believes she has accidentally burned the 15,000 marks her uncle had given her shortly beforehand: she was supposed to deposit the school’s semester earnings into its bank account, since the absent-minded Haselmeier had to hurry off to a magicians’ convention and had no time to do it himself. Now they are in a bind: Lilo and her friends, including the shy Stefan, plan to announce a singing contest that will earn them the money within two weeks. But things turn out differently. At a Kitzbühel hotel, the hot-tempered millionaire Hazy Morton gets so worked up over the poor service that his secretary Überlein hastily looks for a new hotel. With everything booked, he promptly installs Morton at the seemingly grand Schloss Thannberg, and the students, who need the money, play along. Before long, Morton has had enough here too, because although Pinky and his friends try their best, they are completely overwhelmed by the task of serving food. When Morton, driven to distraction by the constant rehearsal noise for the singing contest, wants to leave, Pinky and his friends claim that the oil-king O. W. Müller will be arriving in his place shortly. Morton has long had only one goal: to sign a contract with Müller, so he stays. By chance, he sees the absent-minded, hard-drinking Haselmeier return to the castle—because of a mix-up with suitcases, Haselmeier had been unable to perform his magic tricks at the convention—and mistakes him for Müller. He flatters Haselmeier over the next few days and becomes increasingly bearable to those around him. Meanwhile, his secretary Fräulein Bracke falls in love with Haselmeier, while Pinky is pursued by Morton’s other secretary, Fräulein Wenzel. When word gets around Kitzbühel that the students have turned their castle into a hotel, the news is soon passed on to the unsuspecting Ponelli. He sets off for the castle at once, where he is mistaken for the disguised Pinky and locked in the coal cellar. Meanwhile, Morton has gone with Haselmeier to the Enzian hut, hoping first to get Haselmeier drunk and then persuade him to sign the cooperation agreement. Before that can happen, Überlein reads in the newspaper that Müller is bankrupt and prevents the agreement from being signed. As Haselmeier and Pinky flee from their respective admirers, racing recklessly down a slope on skis, they do not know that they have unwittingly entered a ski race. Pinky ends up skiing into the castle’s coal cellar, where he happens to find the 15,000 marks again; they had merely slipped under the coal. Lilo and the castle are saved, the surprised Pinky is awarded the winner’s trophy for the ski race, and even Director Ponelli relents when he learns that Morton was more than satisfied with the students’ “service.”