Charleys Onkel (1969)

Carla “Charley” Werner, a driving instructor at Most Driving School, has had enough: her male students keep grabbing her leg. Furious, she quits when her boss tries to fire her for complaining. At home, her unconventional boyfriend annoys her landlady by decorating the fresh wallpaper with his paintings while sitting on the chandelier. When the chandelier crashes to the floor, Carla is summarily evicted. She goes to see her friend Lilo Freddersen, a call girl. Lilo is going to the Bermudas for three weeks and leaves Carla her apartment and her clients for that time. If any of them gets too forward, Carla can get rid of him quickly: she just has to throw a plate into the garbage chute. That is the signal for the caretaker to call the apartment five minutes later and pretend to be Uncle Jonathan. Lilo always claims that her uncle is about to arrive, which gets rid of her clients. Jonathan is a real person, and he is also Lilo’s actual uncle. But because she was born out of wedlock, she is the family’s black sheep and is deliberately kept secret. Jonathan, meanwhile, is crossing the sea to the mainland to recuperate at Dr. Alfred Krusius’s sanatorium. His strict wife, Cornelia, who has forbidden him to smoke and drink, stays behind because she gets seasick easily. But when she finds a letter from Lilo to Jonathan among her husband’s things, she takes it to mean that Lilo is his mistress and goes ashore to confront her rival. Cornelia calls her nephew Boy Deisen, who works as a pilot, and tells him about Lilo. At the airport, Boy sees Lilo and Carla saying goodbye to each other. He mistakes Carla for Lilo. Over the next few days, Carla has her hands full keeping Lilo’s admirers at a distance. The caretaker eagerly plays Uncle Jonathan, while Cornelia searches for her husband around town. She makes it as far as the sanatorium, but Dr. Krusius turns her away. Wives, he says, prevent their husbands from getting better, so they are forbidden from entering the sanatorium. In reality, the sanatorium is a replica sailors’ tavern where the old salts relearn how to swear and drink, and can indirectly get revenge on their wives by throwing fruit and eggs at their portraits on the wall. Cornelia sees her last chance as talking to Lilo herself. She ends up at Carla’s place, where Carla mistakes her for her new cleaning woman. Cornelia plays along. By mistake, she throws some rubbish into the garbage chute, and a short while later the caretaker calls and pretends to be Uncle Jonathan. Cornelia now sees her worst fears coming true, and Boy, who has come to see Carla, is outraged too. He secretly follows Carla to her driving school, as her boss has hired her back. He sneaks into the driving-school car and confronts the bewildered Carla. When he calls her his uncle’s mistress, she slaps him, and he causes an accident. Although he learns when the police take down their details that the woman he thought was Lilo is actually called Carla, Carla claims that Lilo is her nickname. Meanwhile, Cornelia disguises herself as a sailor and manages to sneak into the sanatorium. She confronts her husband and tells him what she knows about Lilo. When Jonathan admits that he knows Lilo, Cornelia announces that she is going to divorce him. Jonathan is left in despair and decides to visit Lilo, who can clear everything up. Lilo has in fact returned home earlier than expected. On her trip she met the respectable Egon, whom she is soon going to marry. She throws a farewell party for all her admirers, and Carla is invited too. When Egon suddenly arrives, Carla takes on the role of the supposed hostess. More guests arrive one by one: Boy shows up, thinking Carla is a call girl. Jonathan arrives and tells Lilo everything that has happened. Finally, Cornelia arrives too, still disguised as a sailor. She has been arrested by the police and now has to prove that she really is a woman. In the end, everything is cleared up. Boy learns that Lilo is not Carla—and from Carla’s best friend and colleague Helga, he also learns that Carla is not a call girl. The two become a couple. Lilo explains the trick with the garbage chute and the phone call to Jonathan, and both he and Cornelia are relieved, especially when another accidental use of the garbage chute provides proof: the phone rings, and the landlord is on the line pretending to be Uncle Jonathan.