Das Spukschloß im Spessart (1960)

Things have gone badly for the robbers in the Spessart. They were bricked up alive in the cellar of the inn in the Spessart. It is not until the West German economic boom that the inn ruins are demolished, because a motorway is to be built through the Spessart. Ironically, a new “inn for travelers” is built on exactly the same spot: the Spessart motorway service station. This allows the robbers’ ghosts to escape. They seek refuge in a nearby castle, where the young Countess Charlotte von Sandau lives. The ghosts can only be released once each of them has performed a good deed. The castle’s finances are in a dire state, and Countess Charlotte is on the verge of bankruptcy. In this situation, Senior Government Councillor von Teckel appears—a descendant of Police Colonel von Teckel, who once captured the robbers. He proposes that, using his position in Bonn, he arrange for a foreign head of state to stay at the castle: Prince Kalaka of Celebresia. At the same time, the son of a building contractor is snooping around the castle; he wants to turn it into a luxury hotel. When the ghosts steal the prince’s jewelry, Countess Charlotte is arrested as the thief, and the ghosts have to convince the authorities that they exist in order to get her released. They succeed, and in the end the ghosts also help Charlotte out of her financial predicament by taking part, for a handsome fee, as astronauts for the Americans in the race against the Soviets to the Moon.