Durch Dick und Dünn (1951)

One morning at the breakfast table, Theodor Müller receives a letter saying that Uncle Ottokar has died in Stuttgart and has named Theodor’s wife, Else, as his sole heir. Else and the children, Marlene, Rolf, and Peter, immediately start planning how to spend the inheritance they expect to receive. The family decides that Theodor should go to Stuttgart and take care of it. Before leaving, Theodor checks that all is well at his jewelry shop, which he runs with his wife and Mr. Schulze. Countess Donnersberg is there trying to sell valuable gemstones to Schulze at a low price, but Theodor advises against buying them. He does not know that Schulze has already told Else about the bargain and that she insists on making a deal with the countess. As it later turns out, Theodor’s suspicions were well-founded: the countess is arrested by the police as a member of a gang of thieves. When Theodor returns from Stuttgart and tells his family about the inheritance, they are deeply disappointed. Else has inherited an expense bill, an old gramophone, and a very old car. Even when Theodor tells the family some astonishing stories about the car—for instance, that its tank has remarkably never run dry and that it once saved him from an attack by highwaymen—it does not lift their spirits. Then an outing in the car comes to an abrupt end because of a breakdown, and the family wants nothing more to do with the old vehicle. A film company that needs such an old car for a movie scene has to accept that Theodor wants to drive it himself. Since no one tells him that a high-revving supercharged engine has been installed in the car, his drive across the amusement park, where filming was supposed to take place, ends in disaster. Finally, the youngest member of the family, Peter, secretly borrows the car for an evening outing in the countryside. Peter gets off lightly when the car plunges down an embankment into a lake, while he himself remains unharmed. When the car is recovered, a cashbox is found inside and handed over to the Müllers. To the family’s delight, it contains a small fortune, which they use to buy a new car.