Powerful

Excellent but underrated film

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

"Ferien auf Immenhof" is a West German 90-minute movie from 1957, so this one will have its 60th anniversary next year. It is the third of 5 films of the Immenhof movie series and there was a big break between this third and the forth film. Angelika Meissner did not return for it, but Heidi Brühl did. These two play Dick and Dalli, the girls who are the main characters here once again. The blonde is Heidi Brühl who died from cancer way too early, but Meissner is still alive today in her 70s. The writer and director this time is Hermann Leitner. If you know a bit about the Immenhof films, you know exactly what to expect here. There is some comedy, some drama, some romance and of course the Immenhof is once again struggling financially as there are not enough people coming. Will it help to donate free weekends at the Immenhof to orphaned children? Watch for yourself. I must say this is probably the movie I liked the most from these three Immenhof films I have seen so far. I still believe that the acting is not too good really and the writing is also not really that great. It may sound absurd, but they really managed to make these everyday problems and stories look unauthentic. Nothing out of the ordinary happens here, but it still does not feel like I am watching real life. Oh well.. what do I know about real life in 1950s Germany. Still, sometimes you just are in the mood for a film like this. Sometimes you just want to see these two charismatic teenage girls, the cute animals and you can almost smell the farm air through the screen. If you are in for something harmonic that just feels good and has a happy ending for everybody involved (this was expected of course) even if it may depict a time long gone, then this Immenhof film may be the perfect choice for you. In this scenario, I recommend the watch.

This is part 3 of 5 part "Immenhof series", though it took almost 15 years before part 4 was made. The series aimed at simple family entertainment for during the holiday season, but one wonders whether it had to be that simple as the story of part 3. Part 1 still had a decent story, from part 2 on the story material would be almost non existent. Part 2's story was already weaker than that of part 1, part 3's poor story subject is only how to get guests for the Pony Hotel. To fill the time the theme "Immenhof" song is repeated a number of times; one would have expected that the composer would have come up with at least one alternative song by now. Hermann Leitner's direction is decent, but what could he have done more with the poor script material. As with the 2 other parts the main attraction lies within the cast: both Heid Brühl and Angelika Meissner whom in the 3 parts we have seen grown up from young girls to young women and Margarete Haagen and Paul Henckels.There is another regular in this series who I did not mention in my reviews on the first 2 parts: Paul Klinger. But who cares about him?