Ich kauf mir lieber einen Tirolerhut (1965)

Hat manufacturer Hubert Krempe is furious: his company is making no sales anymore because “everyone only has one head.” Then his employee Gunther Kleinhirsch returns from his vacation in Tyrol two days later than agreed, and Krempe fires him. However, Krempe changes his mind when he sees that Gunther is wearing a Tyrolean hat his girlfriend Zenzi gave him as a souvenir. Since Tyrolean hats are virtually unknown in the big city, Krempe now wants to make them. He sends Gunther back to Tyrol to do research and promote the hats. Gunther promptly abducts his friend, composer Gerd Raupach, when Gerd refuses to come along and would rather work in a recording studio with his girlfriend, Lucy Barner. When they arrive in the Tyrolean village of Kirchberg, Gerd is initially unimpressed, but soon takes a liking to journalist Karin Leisner. Meanwhile, Lucy and Evelyn Krempe, the hat manufacturer’s daughter, plan to go to Kirchbach to see how things are going. Lucy suspects Gerd is cheating on her, while Evelyn is certain that Gunther is spending less time working than with his girlfriend Zenzi. After arriving, both women find their suspicions confirmed, and Lucy breaks up with Gerd. Since she had let Karin believe that she was engaged to Gerd, Karin feels deceived and now refuses to have anything more to do with the composer, too. Gerd works with Gunther on an advertising song for the Tyrolean hat, which gets the fitting title “I’d Rather Buy Myself a Tyrolean Hat.” They are helped by the shy Manfred Ratschenkofer, who plays the drums but is actually supposed to work in his mother’s felt factory. He would much rather be a musician. Manfred meets Evelyn, who introduces herself as a world traveler, prompting him to claim that he is a musician. The two quickly become a couple. Gunther and Lucy, who is now unattached, also grow closer, while Gerd tries in vain to win Karin back. There is unrest in the village, too, caused by Mrs. Ratschenkofer. Gunther wants to launch a special promotional campaign for the Tyrolean hat. He has invited several beauty queens to Kirchberg to model the hats in bikinis. Mrs. Ratschenkofer fears not only that the village’s morals will decline, but also that outsiders will misuse the tradition of the Tyrolean hat. She first tries to turn the rifle club against the planned event, but the men are very taken with the idea of scantily clad women wearing Tyrolean hats. It is the women of the rifle club who are outraged. Shortly before the event, they abduct the models and lock them in a hay barn. Gunther and his friends quickly change their plans. Zenzi, Lucy, Evelyn, and even Karin, who has reconciled with Gerd, step in as models. Hubert nevertheless tries to save the event with the original models. He makes a deal with Mrs. Ratschenkofer: her felt factory will supply the material for the Krempe hats from then on. They also both agree to the marriage of their children, Evelyn and Manfred, who had already planned to elope in secret. When Mrs. Ratschenkofer tries to free the captive models, the women of the rifle club lock her in the barn as well. However, all the women manage to escape in time and appear at the last moment at the festival where the Tyrolean hats are presented. Naturally, the finished hit song “I’d Rather Buy Myself a Tyrolean Hat” is also sung at the top of everyone’s voice. In the end, the couples are Lucy and Gunther, Evelyn and Manfred, and Karin and Gerd.