...und die Liebe lacht dazu (1957)

On the way from Vienna to Schlosshotel Kitzbühel, the von Ausberg family is overtaken so recklessly by a car from Bremen that they veer off the road. The Ausbergs are stunned, and the time needed to recover their car means they do not reach the hotel until night. There, they learn that their room has already been rented to someone else, so they have to spend the night in the draughty, cold tower room. Stefan von Ausberg, who had been driving and is now examining the damage in the courtyard, meets the young Anna-Susanna Papendiek and falls in love with her at once. Even her confession that she was the reckless driver does not put him off. Meanwhile, Anna-Susanna’s parents, Klaus and Luise, meet the von Ausbergs—Ferdinand von Ausberg, his niece Pauline, and the steward Salvator—but the mood turns icy when the Ausbergs realize that the Papendieks have taken over their rooms and were responsible for their delay. Each family thinks the other is beneath them: the Ausbergs believe the Papendieks are bakers, whereas they are consuls and run the Papendiek bread factory. The Papendieks assume the Ausbergs are ordinary wine merchants, whereas they are an old-established aristocratic family with the title of count, who own vineyards. Anna-Susanna, in turn, takes Count Ferdinand von Ausberg’s nephew Stefan for a mere chauffeur, but loves him anyway. Her parents are firmly opposed to a match, as Anna-Susanna is already promised to Captain Jan Dirksen. They also mistakenly believe that Ferdinand and Pauline are married. At the carnival in Kitzbühel, Anna-Susanna and Stefan meet in secret and slip away. On the footpath back to the Schlosshotel, Anna-Susanna falls into a stream, so she and Stefan take refuge in a mountain hut, where she dries her clothes. Luise has seen her daughter leave with Stefan and is very worried when Anna-Susanna has still not returned to the hotel by midnight. Meanwhile, Klaus strikes up a friendship with Ferdinand, since they are both passionate stamp collectors. Anna-Susanna and Stefan eventually show up at the hotel, and the horrified Luise orders the Papendieks to leave the next day. Some time later in Bremen, Anna-Susanna and Jan’s engagement is about to take place. Jan confesses to Klaus that he does not really love Anna-Susanna, whom he has known since childhood, enough to marry her. Anna-Susanna, for her part, is attached to Stefan. The Ausbergs arrive unexpectedly because Ferdinand wants to exchange a particular stamp with Klaus. The family realizes that the Papendieks are by no means bakers, but a wealthy merchant family living in a grand villa. Luise is appalled by the visit, but cannot overrule Klaus, who welcomes the Ausbergs and disappears with Ferdinand to trade stamps. Pauline goes for a walk and meets Jan Dirksen in a florist’s shop. They fall in love, and Pauline has no objection when Jan’s sailors take her to be his future bride. That evening, Pauline and Jan go into a sailors’ tavern, where Anna-Susanna and Stefan are already there. Anna-Susanna and Jan admit to each other that they are in love with someone else. In the end, Anna-Susanna and Stefan secretly leave for Vienna, while Jan and Pauline turn up at the Papendieks’ and announce their engagement. The confusion reaches its height when Luise accuses Pauline of already being married to Ferdinand. Luise and Klaus want to make Anna-Susanna marry Jan, so they travel with the captain to Vienna, where Anna-Susanna and Stefan are planning their engagement. When the Papendieks try to force their daughter to marry, she escapes to the Ausbergs, who now plan to play a trick on her parents. They invite Luise, Klaus, and Jan into an unused wine cellar, which they present to them as their home. Wearing shabby clothes and behaving coarsely, they pretend to be a terrible family and eventually have the Papendiek parents arrested by fake policemen. Klaus realizes the deception after a short time, but plays along to teach his wife a lesson. The police car ride ends at the Ausbergs’ stately villa. Only then does Luise realize she has been tricked, and she agrees to her daughter marrying Count’s nephew Stefan von Ausberg. Jan, in turn, realizes that Pauline is not married, so nothing stands in the way of their relationship either.