Clothes Make the Man

Wenzel, a tailor, is dismissed for making the fine coat meant for the mayor for himself instead. He is allowed to keep the coat and puts it on as he leaves the shop. On the road a puppeteer takes him up in his coach and, for a joke, addresses him as Count. By the time he reaches Goldach everyone takes him for Count Stroganoff, ambassador to the Czar of Russia. The more Wenzel tries to correct the misunderstanding, the larger it grows. The film is about the story people build out of looking at a garment. Who it is that keeps the lie going is the real matter of the account. Heinz Rühmann and Hertha Feiler appear in Helmut Käutner’s hundred minute German film, completed in 1940.