Three Men in the Snow

The millionaire Eduard Schlüter enters a competition run by his own company under the name Schulze and wins the top prize, a holiday at a mountain hotel. He goes there dressed as a poor man; the point is to see how the staff and the guests treat somebody with no money. He takes his servant Johann along. At the hotel nobody believes him, and both men are taken for the wrong person. The source is Erich Kästner's novel; the writer had the same story adapted several times over his career. Kurt Hoffmann's 1955 version is among the best known examples of post-war comedy in Germany. The idea is simple but sharp: how people behave changes not with the person but with the money the person appears to have. The film does this without accusing anyone, only by showing it. When Schlüter's daughter arrives at the hotel the confusion goes completely out of control.