Lemkes sel. Witwe (1957)

Else Lemke, a greengrocer’s widow, is a capable businesswoman who speaks her mind and knows how to get her way with her cheeky tongue. When something does not suit the tough woman—for example, when wholesaler Gutsche demands prices at Hamburg’s fruit and vegetable wholesale market that seem far too high to her, as with his cherries—she is quick to put him in his place with her sharp tongue. This does not make her popular with everyone. When Lore Lemke, Else’s daughter, is elected “Queen” at the Krötenstein Cherry Festival, some spectators are outraged by the result. Lore slips away from the event at night and has to dodge several horses in the dark, whereupon her car ends up in a ditch. A little later, a genuine prince named Eduard von Krötenstein, who makes a living as a pump salesman, crosses paths with the beauty queen and helps her with her car trouble. They quickly fall in love. Since the impoverished prince has been fired by his boss, Mr. Butensack, for his continued lack of success, he is able to start work for the Lemkes. Together with Lore Lemke, he gives the Lemke family’s struggling vegetable business a real boost with his ideas. After Else Lemke’s foul mouth has caused a full-scale brawl at Hamburg’s fruit and vegetable wholesale market, Eduard turns the vegetable business into a juice shop, selling juice squeezed from cucumbers, tomatoes, and kohlrabi. Meanwhile, Eduard’s grandfather, Prince Krötenstein, resides in his castle and most enjoys reenacting the Battle of Belle-Alliance (Waterloo). His steward, Baron Nassen, handles the business affairs for him. Nassen is a rather shady operator and, purely out of self-interest, courts Edith Gutsche, the daughter of the not exactly poor fruit wholesaler Otto Gutsche, whom we met at the beginning of the film. Edith is dazzled by the baron’s title, since she considers herself something of a cut above others, while the baron hopes he might marry into a wealthy family. In the meantime, Else has handed her future son-in-law and her daughter the worst-performing Lemke shop, which she does not want to close for sentimental reasons. The two are to prove themselves as businesspeople there. Their idea of selling fruit and vegetable juices works very well, and soon the small basement-level shop is making a profit again. Meanwhile, Baron Nassen plots against the Lemkes and tries to convince old Prince Krötenstein that old Mrs. Lemke is interested in her daughter’s planned marriage to the prince’s grandson only for the title and prestige. He also persuades old Gutsche to invest 100,000 marks in Krötenstein, intending ultimately to wrest the castle from the old prince. Finally, Nassen also persuades the penniless prince to grant him general power of attorney and disinherit his grandson Eduard. Meanwhile, Else Lemke travels to Krötenstein Castle in a fury to set the record straight with the old man. There she encounters the scheming baron and her arch-enemy, Otto Gutsche. They exchange a few sharp words. Later, a Miss Heinke appears at the juice shop, and later still Trudi Nelke arrives. They, along with four other women who turn up, recognize the slick asset manager of Krötenstein Castle in a newspaper photo—which also shows Baron Nassen—as a brazen crook and marriage swindler who had promised the women present that he would marry them in the past, using various names. Just then, Else arrives at Krötenstein with the women he has swindled, at the very moment the fake baron is holding his engagement party with Edith Gutsche. Amid a great commotion and in the presence of a police inspector, Nassen, also known as Schierwitz, Nusskämper, and Holstein, is led away. Nothing now stands in the way of Prince Eduard and Lore Lemke’s engagement. But Else turns down Gutsche’s marriage proposal: she would rather remain the Lemkes’ widow.