Der alte Sünder (1951)

Ferdinand Bauer is a widower and the father of Franzi, Fanny, and Fritzi, a medical student. He owns Bauer’s ladies’ salon and is regarded in society as a bon vivant and a man who understands women. At the direction of his quiet business partner, Zirrhübel, he attends receptions every day and is seen at balls and social gatherings, thereby enhancing the reputation of the House of Bauer. Only his daughters suffer from their constantly absent father, who usually comes home drunk the next morning, though he can always placate them with lavish gifts of money. The bookkeeper, Mizzi Hanak, who is secretly in love with Ferdinand, also keeps quiet as long as her boss’s escapades are good for business. Ferdinand, meanwhile, would dearly love to take a vacation, but changes his mind when the famous dancer Yvonne Farini finally becomes a customer at his shop after a long courtship. Yvonne has Ferdinand make her an evening dress, and he is captivated by the beautiful woman. Her celebrity sends sales at the ladies’ salon soaring. At the same time, the ménage à trois becomes a topic of conversation around town: Ferdinand is not the only one vying for Yvonne; the wealthy Sandor Gyöngyoshazy is pursuing her too. Both men give the dancer ever more valuable gifts, and she keeps them both on tenterhooks. Mizzi begins to warn Ferdinand that the salon’s expenses have now exceeded its income. He realizes things cannot go on this way and impulsively cancels a meeting with Yvonne. Instead, he goes with Mizzi to a café in the Prater, where Yvonne promptly turns up with Sandor as well. She invites Ferdinand to a ball, where she will wear his new dress, and he forgets all his good intentions. The next day, Mizzi intends to resign because she no longer wants to be responsible for the House of Bauer’s accounts. Ferdinand decides on a radical break: he gives the ladies’ salon to his daughters as a gift. After that, the business goes rapidly downhill. Ferdinand’s daughters cannot manage it and allow money to be taken indiscriminately from the cash register. Customers stop coming because Ferdinand is no longer there to advise them with his charm. Since he has also withdrawn from public life, the business loses all its publicity as well. Zirrhübel tries to follow in Ferdinand’s footsteps as a bon vivant, but first has to learn to dance, and he lacks Ferdinand’s charm, too. One day, Yvonne visits Ferdinand and invites him to her new show. He declines, but secretly slips out of the house that evening. At Yvonne’s dressing-room door, he hears her flirting with Sandor. She tells him that Ferdinand is no threat to him because he is only a tailor. Ferdinand returns home, disillusioned, and spends the night poring over the business books. Only then does he realize how badly his daughters have mismanaged the business, and he plans to revoke the gift the next day. His daughters refuse to give up the business, pointing out that he himself has shown he is no better at running it, and Ferdinand is shaken. There is little point in further discussion, because the business is insolvent anyway following a stock-market crash. The shop and all its furnishings are put up for auction. Without Ferdinand knowing, Mizzi buys some of the furnishings and opens a new fashion shop not far from the old Bauer ladies’ salon. It is Zirrhübel who leads Ferdinand to the new shop, where the staff now includes his longtime tailor, Pschistranek, as well as his daughters Fritzi, Fanny, and Franzi. They have already received their first orders, and soon the first customer comes into the shop and is immediately won over by Ferdinand’s charm. Ferdinand soon becomes engaged to Mizzi, while Fritzi finds a future husband in Josef Brandner, a wealthy brewer.