A mere four months after the release of the first successful Willi Winzig film 'Was Ist Den Bloß mit Willi Los?", Heinz Erhardt returned to the silver screen as another Willi, Hirsekorn to be precise. Erhardt introduces the film himself in an unnecessary prologue accompanied by some unconvincing attempts of him trying to 'push back' the opening credits. This Willi (though basically the same character Erhardt usually plays) is married, has two children and a 'fourlegged boxer' as mentioned in the opening credits: a dog of said breed called 'Karl-Heinz'. Ruth Stephan, who appeared as Willi's secretary less than half a year ago, has been elevated to the part of his wife this time round and Hans Terofal appears as her dimwitted, accident prone brother, who for some reason also lives with them.
The Hirsekorn family has never really gotten on with their next door neighbors, the Buntje's (Günther Jerschke and Käte Jaenicke). Heimo and Mizzi, for that are the Buntje's first names, have a teenage daughter Petra (Angelika Baumgart) but disapprove of her mustachioed boyfriend Herbert (Klaus Hagen Latwesen). When her parents decide to take a tour bus to Italy, Petra and Herbert concoct a cunning plan to get him into her parents good graces. Apparently all he has to do is shave his upper lip and introduce himself as a nice clean cut boy. In another strange attempt at humor, the title of this very movie is mentioned on the Hirsekorn's TV, but Willi's wife Sieglinde turns it off in order to convince her hubby to go Italy as well (she always wants to one up Mizzi). Willi mentions he visited Italy in '42 (ooh er, I thought making fun of the war was illegal in Germany) but eventually he concedes and promises to drive the entire family (dog, brother in law et all) to the very same hotel the bus is headed for: Grand Hotel Remolo.
Most of the car trip seems to have been filmed inside Willi's cramped little car. This means the characters in front were shot separately from the characters in back in order to accommodate the cameraman. Must have been quite a task for the continuity/script girl. Though this picture obviously had a slighter bigger budget than the previous Willi (hence a story with more scope and more locations) writer/director Rolf Olsen is not afraid to include some of the most tiresome techniques ever seen in comedy: sped up music accompanying a fast forwarded sequence, as well as whistle and drum-roll sound effects. Once we get to the seaside (I'm not entirely convinced they set foot in Italy, though there is some Italian to be heard), there are more Benny Hill inspired gags and musical cues, as well as some crudely animated wasps and 'sunburn' effects.
As mentioned at the top of this comment, years before every film was split into different chapters for it to be released on DVD, this movie already has chapter titles in place, as well as on screen: "Wochenendefriende", "Die Abfahrt", "Die Reise", "Der Ferienort", "Der Strandleben", "Die Ferienromanze" and "Der Abschied". This should come in handy for the kind of audience that loves to turn of their brain and have everything explained to them (which, according to the IMDb message boards is quite a big portion of the viewing public) as well as for the inevitable DVD release (though I suspect six or seven chapters might be a bit sparse).
At first the quarreling neighbors continue at their usual pace at the beach in Italy, but when the two men spot a buxom blonde, they decide to team up and aim for some holiday romance as long as the wife's (handily indisposed by the aforementioned sunburns) don't catch on. Both Willi and Heimo fail to realize that blonde Clementine (Almut Berg) is only interested in their money. That silly brother in law of Willi has found a willing victim in the Hotel owner's daughter, but finds himself continually thwarted by his own niece and nephew (shame on them). When Erhardt starts to sing a silly song on the last night of the holiday you know the film is drawing to a close and every loose end will be resolved before the song is through. And so it is. At least until the next Willi.
6 out of 10
