The wave of West German sex comedies of the 1970s began to run out of steam towards the end of the decade. This film is a perfect example why this was the case. Even by the low standards of that subgenre it's not sexy at all. And adding to that it's also particularly unfunny (also compared Toten even lower standards of that subgenre). It must have felt dated at the time of its release.
It tries to dock on the very popular West German Spessart (a forest in the south west of Germany) comedies of the 1950s, in particular the film Das Spukschloss Im Spessart (The Spessart Haunted Castle), where ghosts of the 1600s haunt a castle in present, 1950s, time), a great film with satirical nods on German post war politics and the still existing shadows of Nazi Germany.
So here we also have a kind of nostalgic theme (with early 20th century costumes, silent film era comedy and even a ghost subplot), but it seems forced and out of place. The sex scenes are scarce and tame (compared to other soft sex films of the same era) and also appear very dated.
The film is episodic and is never more than a sum of these unfunny parts. There's the story with the ghost couple sharing time with their current doppelganger couple, there's the story about two businessmen going on their secret adventures and their young wives doing the same in the Spessart sex spa, and there's other couples/newlyweds making funny and erotic adventures.
Sounds entertaining? It isn't. Even at an 80 Minute run time it drags. The film still feels too deeply rooted in early 1970s, when in 1978 times already went on and the disco era with its new sexuality was in full swing.
There were still sex comedies produced in West Germany until the early 80s (then adapting a more modern style) but with contending vhs (and stronger sexual contents) the demand for that kind of cinema sank.
This film is a prime testimonial for that.
