Der Herr Senator: A weird, dusty relic

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, you probably already know if you’re the type of person who digs these old black-and-white comedies. If you want a fast-paced thriller, keep walking. This is for the folks who love looking at 1930s fashion and hearing people shout in German while doors slam in the background.

If you hate stiff acting or jokes that feel like they’ve been sitting in a cupboard for ninety years, you’ll likely find this a chore. It’s definitely not for everyone. 👻

The whole thing feels like a stage play that decided to wander onto a film set and forgot to leave. There’s a specific kind of energy here, the kind that reminded me a bit of the frantic, slightly unhinged pacing in What's Your Husband Doing? where everyone is just constantly running in circles.

Valy Arnheim is doing a lot of heavy lifting. He’s got that classic, wide-eyed look of a man who just realized his life is a total disaster, and he keeps that face for about 80% of the movie. It’s kind of impressive, really.

• The ghost effects? They are hilariously primitive. It looks like someone just poked a hole in the negative.
• The scene with the senator and the portrait—I swear the actor was trying not to laugh.
• The dialogue is so fast that if you look away for ten seconds, you’ll lose the entire plot.

There’s a moment near the middle where the film just stops to let a musical number happen, and I’m still not sure if it was supposed to be there or if the editor just fell asleep on the wrong button. It’s bizarre. I loved it. 🤷‍♂️

Sometimes the movie gets so caught up in its own silliness that it forgets to be a story. It just becomes a collection of people acting shocked at ghosts. It’s not trying to win an Oscar, that’s for sure.

I found myself thinking about Carry On! while watching this, mainly because both films have this weird, infectious desire to just keep the camera rolling even when the plot has clearly left the building.

Do you need to watch this? No. Is it charming in a dusty, mothball-scented kind of way? Yeah, maybe. It’s definitely an oddity.

Note to self: stop expecting these old films to make sense. It’s the vibe that counts.