Ein Mädchen aus Paris (1954)

The elderly Louis Schubarth emigrated from Germany to France 25 years ago. He settled in Paris, where he went on to build a successful import-export business dealing in tropical fruit and vegetables. His great loves are collecting Asian art ... and his little daughter Madeleine, who has since grown into an attractive young woman. Across the Rhine lives Mathias Wilbers, a contemporary of Louis’s and a maker of wind instruments, which he manufactures in Hückeswagen, Westphalia. One day, both men travel to Munich for an art auction, where a number of exquisite Asian artworks are up for sale. During the bidding, the two men engage in a fierce contest, neither willing to give the other an inch. Only late in the proceedings do Wilbers and Schubarth recognize each other: long before the war, they had been fellow students. They celebrate their reunion merrily over drinks. Louis eventually meets Wilbers’s grown son, Robert, too, and takes a liking to the young man. In the general haze of strong beer and the joy of seeing each other again, Louis gets the idea of bringing his daughter Madeleine, a law student, together with Mathias’s Robert, who has also taken law courses. The two older men hatch a plan: Madeleine is to come to Munich and tack on a few semesters abroad. Robert agrees to keep a close eye on the pretty blonde, so that she devotes all her attention to her studies and not to any other temptations. Despite her initial lack of enthusiasm, Madeleine does indeed arrive. Robert is delighted when he sees the charming, likable Frenchwoman. The girl from Paris makes his heart beat faster, and the German student resolves to show Madeleine around “his” Munich. They grow closer over music and dancing, and the two lovebirds begin to fall in love. One day, when one of Madeleine’s admirers from Paris follows her to Munich, the first clouds appear on the horizon. After Madeleine’s temporary “flight,” prompted by several fits of jealousy and misunderstandings that briefly cloud Madeleine and Robert’s happiness, the Franco-German couple realizes that they belong together forever.