Dort in der Wachau (1957)

There is tension aboard the Danube ship Johann Strauß. Milena, Captain Paul Heider’s fiancée, is angry because Paul has once again failed to return aboard after going ashore, instead spending the night enjoying himself on land. For years, Paul has started an affair ashore whenever the opportunity arose, and Milena suffers because of her fiancé’s behavior. However, she does not want to marry him, since married couples are not allowed to work together on a ship. She fears that Paul’s behavior would only get worse if he were left to his own devices. The ship’s cook, Nowak, has problems too: he is in love with Milena, who turns him down. He, in turn, rejects Pepperl, the cook, who would very much like to marry him. Yet he is still secretly in love with a woman he once left behind on land and could not find again when he changed his mind. While ashore, ship’s lieutenant Peter Rajko meets the young Elisabeth Bergmann, whose clothes were stolen while she was swimming. He lends her his jacket, and soon her clothes are found again. Peter is delighted to learn that Elisabeth is a journalist and will come aboard the Johann Strauß the next day to travel as far as Linz for a feature story. At the newspaper office, Elisabeth is also assigned photojournalist Emil Bayerl, who will cover part of the route from land on his moped, Blue Lightning. To Milena’s dismay, Gelina also comes aboard along with Elisabeth and Emil. Gelina once had an affair with Paul; she keeps pursuing him and trying to flirt with him, but eventually finds a replacement in fellow passenger Haselbrunner. Elisabeth and Peter soon get together, but Paul also tries to flirt with Elisabeth. To his surprise, she repeatedly rebuffs him, and soon tells him that she is his daughter. He once had an affair with her mother, Franziska. Before long, Milena, who is not surprised, and Peter—Paul’s son—also know about it. Elisabeth is devastated when the man she loves turns out to be her brother. In the end, however, it emerges that Elisabeth’s father is not Paul but the cook, Nowak. He once pretended to be Paul so he could have some success with women himself. Elisabeth’s mother, Franziska, was the woman he could never find again, but also never forget. He is delighted to hear that Franziska will meet Elisabeth in Linz. When Emil Bayerl went ashore to do his land-based report, he had brought a crying boy aboard the Johann Strauß who desperately wanted to get on the ship. His mother, Klara, arrived at the landing stage too late—her son had run away again because he was determined to become a cabin boy. His late father had been captain of an Elbe ship. Emil and Klara now follow the ship by land, but for various reasons miss its arrival at Dürnstein, Aggstein, Aggsbach, Melk, and Marbach, Maria Taferl. They grow closer during the journey and eventually meet their son Bumsi in Linz. In Linz, Nowak meets Franziska, and after all these years they fall into each other’s arms again. In the end, there is a quadruple wedding: Paul Heider finally marries Milena, Peter Rajko and Elisabeth become a couple, Franziska and Nowak marry, and Emil and Klara also tie the knot.