Zwei Whisky und ein Sofa (1963)

Beate Dehn and Klaus Hartmann are two ambitious young architects on the rise. Both are highly ambitious and fierce rivals. When Beate enters an architecture competition one day, the charming Sonny Boy Hartmann is naturally taking part, too. From then on, they use every trick they can think of to outdo each other and snatch the commission from under the other’s nose. Klaus Hartmann, the son of old Hartmann, an experienced architect, is particularly skilled at these sorts of tricks. He has developed a tried-and-true method that the womanizer uses as shamelessly as it is successfully: Take yourself, the (ideally) attractive client, two whiskies, and a sofa. The rest is left to the imagination. Beate Dehn is not so experienced yet, and right at the outset she mistakes the elder Hartmann for the younger one. But she is shrewd, too, and makes increasingly effective use of feminine wiles. For example, she pretends to be a millionaire who has commissions to hand out, in an attempt to outmaneuver junior Hartmann. Then a real millionaire, the glamorous American Mrs. Button, turns up, complicating matters further. Beate also resorts to unscrupulous means as things continue. While both young architects try to sabotage each other’s designs, Beate even goes to the police and claims that Klaus Hartmann is none other than the wanted Emilio Fuchs, a bank clerk who recently made off with the bank’s cash. Hartmann is temporarily arrested as a result. But Beate has only hurt herself with this move; her chances of winning the competition can now only improve if she agrees to cooperate with Hartmann. In the end, with Hartmann’s help, she receives first prize, and the two become a couple.