Der Vogelhändler (1962)

As he does every year, Elector August von Biberstein tells his wife that he is traveling to Kreuzlingen at the invitation of Baron Luft to hunt wild boar. In reality, he goes to Paris and throws himself into the nightlife with his confidant Weckerli, under the name Philipp Bürger. Meanwhile, Count Stanislaus, the nephew of Count Weps, stands in for the Elector and takes up residence in the palace in Kreuzlingen, which in fact is one of the Elector’s many properties. He soon flirts with the village women, including the daughter of Mayor Speck. In the meantime, Electress Marie-Luise has learned from her chambermaid Melanie that August left with numerous tailcoats in his luggage, which he could never possibly need for hunting. Suspicious, the two women travel to Kreuzlingen and take rooms at the mayor’s inn. On the way, they have already made the acquaintance of the bird seller Adam, whose great love is “Christel from the Post Office,” the niece of Mayor Speck. However, she is not allowed to marry Adam because he is not a civil servant. When she hears that the Elector is looking for a menagerie director, she goes to the supposed Elector, Stanislaus, to put in a word for Adam’s appointment. Adam, meanwhile, believes that Christel is having an affair with the Elector, and enjoys himself at the evening dance with the Electress, who has introduced herself to him as a chambermaid. Marie-Luise hears about the many love affairs the Elector carries on at his estate, and among other things sees Speck’s daughter disappear into the building. She leaves, but first at least learns from Christel why she had gone to see the Elector, and also has Adam given the tip that he could sell his birds at the market in Biberstein. Back in Biberstein, Marie-Luise learns from the newspaper that her husband really was in Paris, where he was mistaken for the real Philipp Bürger and arrested. She now wonders who might have impersonated him as Elector, but suspects the womanizing Count Stanislaus. The Electress’s birthday is approaching, and she wants to teach her husband a lesson. She invites the nonexistent Baron Luft to her birthday celebration and promises to take it as a personal insult if he does not show up. In desperation, August looks for someone to stand in for Luft and finds Adam, who is selling his birds at the Biberstein market. He buys all of Adam’s birds, and Adam agrees to play Baron Luft. At the birthday ball, the deception is exposed, and the Electress lets her husband know that she is aware of all his tricks. She has invited Christel, whom she now brings together with Adam. August agrees to appoint Adam as menagerie director, “as promised.” By then, however, Adam has already sought out a civil-service job for himself and becomes a government-employed postal carrier, with Christel at his side.