Morgens um Sieben ist die Welt noch in Ordnung (1968)

The writer Jocelyn Pentecost lives with his wife May and their son Gaylord in a house in the country. The family’s lively everyday life is further enlivened by Gaylord’s grumpy grandfather, his hard-of-hearing great-aunt Marigold, and Jocelyn’s very different sisters, Rose and Becky. While the fun-loving Becky enjoys herself with her boyfriend Peter, the prim schoolteacher Rose has so far had no luck in love. Nervous but excited, she invites her colleague, Mr. Roberts, to dinner. After “Bobs,” as she calls her crush, finally arrives at the Pentecosts’ house following various hiccups, Rose is dismayed to see him show more interest in her attractive sister. Despite his mother’s emphatic warnings, the lively Gaylord meets up repeatedly with his friend Willy. The intellectually disabled boy shows off his prized possession: a glass paperweight he found by chance and keeps hidden suspiciously in a wooden shed at a quarry. Gaylord wants a similar paperweight for his birthday, but his parents give him a different kind, shaped like a deer. Disappointed, he retreats to his room. Stan Grebbie, Bobs’s friend and a teacher at another school, is also a guest at the birthday party. During an evening party game, Bobs cheats so he can kiss Becky without interruption. Meanwhile, Stan meets Rose and compliments her. Their similar personalities draw them to each other. Willy goes with Gaylord to the quarry again and discovers that the paperweight has disappeared. Despite Gaylord’s protestations of innocence, Willy’s brother Bert later threatens him with a knife on the way to school and demands that he return the object he supposedly stole. Intimidated by the dangerous situation, Gaylord pretends to be ill the next morning so he can stay home from school. Though they do not know the exact reason, his parents sense that something is wrong with their son. Under a pretext, Jocelyn suggests accompanying Gaylord to the village, and Gaylord gratefully accepts. One day, their classmate David shows the other pupils the supposedly found paperweight in the schoolyard. During break, Gaylord tries to take the object. Miss Marston catches him reaching into someone else’s schoolbag. That evening, distraught, Gaylord tells his parents the whole story. The next day, a serious conversation between Jocelyn and Bert’s mother, Mrs. Foggerty, a widow living in poor circumstances, proves unsuccessful. Gaylord is no longer allowed to leave his parents’ house alone. Different people take turns accompanying him on his daily walk to school to keep him safe. When the train is cancelled and every hotel room is occupied, Rose unexpectedly turns up one rainy evening at Bobs’s bachelor apartment. His advances are interrupted when Becky bursts in at that very moment to take Rose home. With a thunderstorm approaching, Gaylord goes to the stable to make observations. It is there, of all places, that Bobs—who is supposed to be meeting Rose—secretly meets Becky for a passionate rendezvous in the hay. Back at the house, Gaylord reports the news and provokes a major family row. To put an end to the affairs once and for all, Grandfather has a word with his daughter’s boyfriend. Soon afterward, Becky and Peter get married. During the school holidays, Gaylord goes to the Baltic Sea with his parents and Aunt Rose. May tells her husband that she is expecting a child. Rose learns that Stan is there and spends several happy days with him. When news arrives that Great-aunt Marigold has died, the family has to return home. Back home, Gaylord visits Willy to give him a paperweight he brought back from his holiday as a replacement. Willy refuses: it isn’t his. This is the signal for Bert and his two younger brothers, who have been lying in wait. They attack Gaylord with knives and leave him badly injured. Rose and Stan, who had met again shortly before, happen upon the unconscious Gaylord while out walking. He is saved at the hospital. Stan’s commitment to saving Gaylord earns him the family’s great respect, and he promptly asks for Rose’s hand in marriage.