Hubertusjagd (1959)

Monika Dahlhoff returns to her father’s stud farm in Germany after two years in the United States. Gretl, the housemaid, had written to her that her father, Friedrich, was planning to sell the stud farm to a man named Willy Genreit. The reason is a dispute with his former best friend, Jakob Reinhard, a year earlier. At the time, Friedrich and his stable manager, Otto, held the traditional St. Hubert’s hunt. At one point, many riders fell, and Jakob’s two best horses had to be put down. Since only Friedrich’s riders managed to get through the difficult section without any trouble, several landowners, including Jakob, turned against Friedrich, suspecting that he had cheated. The hostility between Jakob and Friedrich has not been passed on to their children: Monika is given an enthusiastic welcome by Jakob’s younger son, Mathias. His older son, Jörg, a womanizer and braggart, hears about Monika’s beauty and bets his friend two bottles of champagne that he can win over the woman he has never met in no time—the goal being to get a kiss. But when he meets Monika, his attitude toward women changes: he genuinely falls in love with her. Although she returns his feelings and they kiss, he tells his friend that he lost the bet. Monika is warned about the womanizer Jörg by both her father and Gretl, the housemaid, but she puts their warnings down to the enmity between Jakob and Friedrich. However, one of Jörg’s former lovers arrives in the village and exposes his past behavior to Monika. She also shows her dozens of photographs of Jörg’s ex-girlfriends, which he has collected in a drawer. Disappointed, Monika turns away from Jörg and now encourages her father to sell the stud farm. Monika had originally planned to ride in this year’s St. Hubert’s hunt. After her disappointment with Jörg, she decides against it and instead watches the hunt with little Peter, who lives with them at the estate. During the hunt, Jörg takes a daring shortcut that could bring him victory. But Peter, who is searching for the white stag in keeping with the legend of St. Hubert, falls in front of Jörg’s horse and is injured by it. Jörg, who is in the lead, turns back and takes care of Peter. Someone else wins the race, and Jakob, as the event’s organizer, now has to listen to complaints that the course was too difficult for the riders. Jakob realizes that he had wronged Friedrich with his accusations a year earlier, since he himself is now facing the same accusations despite being innocent. He goes to Friedrich and apologizes. Friedrich accepts his apology. Willy Genreit insists that the stud farm be sold, and Friedrich would be obliged to comply. However, it turns out that Willy used to work as a horse groom for Otto, who is not a stable manager at all, but in reality the former East Prussian landowner Otto von Lindenberg. This prevents the sale of the stud farm, and Monika and Jörg become a couple as well.