Jack und Jenny (1963)

The basic structure of this story is that of the old legend of the two royal children who could not be together. Here, the star-crossed lovers are Jenny, a pretty young saleswoman who is completely infatuated with the painter and womanizer Jack. He, too, finds Jenny simply delightful and stunning. Both have their reasons for not admitting their love to each other—it is the old game of being afraid to reveal too much of oneself and risk being rejected and hurt. And so, in their non-relationship, they play games with each other and skirt around the eternal subject of love and those three little words like a cat around hot porridge. Between their first meeting and the final happy ending, the two lovers take numerous detours. Jenny thinks Jack is an egomaniac and therefore ostentatiously marries someone else twice—naturally, the wrong men. And yet, during this endless back-and-forth, she occasionally falls into Jack’s arms or ends up in his bed, both on the night before her wedding to Jack’s friend Eduard and after her divorce has just been finalized. Jack, for his part, would like to have Jenny, but he is commitment-phobic and has a panicky fear of marriage, even though he passionately loves her. After her second marriage, Jenny is still beautiful and is now also a wealthy widow. It is time for Jack to finally approach the woman of his life.