Krach im Standesamt (1962)

Wendelin Pfannenstiel works at the information desk in the town hall of a Swiss city. Among other things, he directs couples wishing to marry to the registry office in Room 42. The registrar who works there, Trautwein, is due to retire soon. Since Wendelin knows the wedding procedure and the relevant legal paragraphs by heart, he is appointed Trautwein’s successor. He botches his first wedding because of his nerves, but after that the ceremonies run like clockwork. Until one day Miss Julia Zimmerlin appears before him, and he falls in love with her. Her jealous fiancé, Marius, calls off the wedding because she spoke too familiarly with the taxi driver. A timid man who is little respected, Wendelin rents a room from the Beilfleiss couple, who dream of owning a large butcher shop with white-tiled walls. His only friend is Alfons, an organ mechanic. Wendelin visits Julia, who lives with her friend Doris, and manages to persuade her to marry him. A law firm announces that Wendelin is heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune in Australia. Now all his colleagues bow to him. The evening before the wedding, he overhears that Julia cannot forget Marius, and she says no at the registry office. Doris, with whom he gets along well, admires him. He begins bringing flowers and cakes to the couples he has married, accompanied by his friend’s little barrel organ. But all the couples seem to be quarrelling and unhappy. Wendelin now scrutinizes more closely whether couples are really suited to each other, and refuses to marry a 65-year-old director who wants to wed his young secretary. The mayor wants to have him committed to a sanatorium, while the Beilfleisses try through the courts to obtain guardianship over him and his money, since Mrs. Beilfleiss is his only relative. But the couples he has married appear as witnesses and thank him for his work. The inheritance turns out to have been a mistake caused by a mix-up over names, and Wendelin is back at the information desk. When Doris, unhappily in love with him, turns up, he realizes his mistake and takes her to the registry office.