Hoch klingt der Radetzkymarsch (1958)

Vienna in the Biedermeier period, in the mid-19th century: When Carl von Heimendorf, a lieutenant in the “Prinz Eugen” Regiment, is teased by his comrades for his persistent lack of success with women, he bets that he will have won a woman over by midnight. He immediately tries to woo Franzi Lechner, his aunt Leonie von Heymendorf’s maid, with a clichéd line, but the young woman walks away. Nevertheless, Carl tells his comrades that he has seduced a maid. This, in turn, enrages First Lieutenant Stephan Fischbacher: earlier that day, he had quarrelled with his girlfriend, the well-known singer Lina Strobl, and wanted to seduce some girl at random for revenge. He chose Franzi and tried to woo her with the same line Carl had used, for which she slapped him. In his anger at Franzi, Stephan writes a song about maids’ laziness and how easily they are seduced. Sung by Lina Strobl at a popular Prater theater, the song quickly becomes a hit and angers every maid in the city. Led by Franzi, who has long been in love with Stephan and receives a marriage proposal from him, the maids begin their revolt. They boycott one of Lina’s performances, and Franzi’s best friend Mitzi is arrested by the police and locked up. The maids then stop work just as an evening ball is being held at the Lindenstein estate in honor of the diplomat Count Hatzberg zu Eberstein. The ball is meant to introduce Princess Clementina Augusta of Lindenstein to her future husband, who is to be none other than Carl von Heymendorf. With the maids on strike, the hall soon runs out of candles and there is no food on the tables. The host, Field Marshal Radetzky, demands to speak with the instigator of the revolt and soon finds himself face to face with Franzi. She first calls for the song to be banned, though she refuses to repeat its lyrics. Stephan, who is also present, is asked to recite them, since he is, after all, the song’s author. Franzi is horrified and tells Radetzky that officers of the “Prinz Eugen” Regiment promise innocent maids marriage without keeping their word. Radetzky, who has heard similar complaints before, acts at once: any officer who has promised a maid marriage is to be forced to marry her and must also give up his uniform. He gives the guilty man a deadline by which to report to him. Eventually, various men report to Radetzky. Carl von Heymendorf also thinks the summons applies to him, since during his brief flirtation he had hypothetically raised the question of marriage and had also boasted to his comrades about a seduction that never happened. In the end, however, Stephan turns out to be the real culprit. In the meantime, Franzi has travelled to visit her grandfather, the winegrower Franz Lechner. Radetzky fetches her there and brings her back to Vienna, where, on his orders, she is to marry Carl von Heymendorf, since he had, after all, offered her marriage and she is therefore simply getting what she herself demanded. Franzi realizes that she loves only Stephan and tells Carl so in the church. The field marshal’s ruse is quickly revealed, as Stephan is already waiting in the church as the groom. Franzi and Stephan are married and leave the church as husband and wife.