Warum lügt Fräulein Käthe? is a messy, charming vintage puzzle

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, if you have a soft spot for black-and-white comedies where the pacing is set to 'sprint' and the plot is held together by sticky notes and prayers, then yes. Watch this. If you need logic, or characters who actually stop to think before they speak, look somewhere else. It’s a total mess of a story, but in that way that feels like a party you weren't quite invited to but are having fun at anyway.

The whole thing is basically one giant misunderstanding. Dolly Haas plays Käthe with this wide-eyed, frantic energy that makes you wonder if she’s ever actually slept in her life. She lies about something small, and the rest of the movie is just the inevitable avalanche of consequences. It’s not deep. It’s not trying to win an award.

There’s this one scene where she’s trying to hide a letter or a secret, I couldn't quite tell, but the way she keeps bumping into furniture was genuinely funny. It felt less like choreography and more like someone just tripped and the director decided to keep it in. That’s the vibe here.

I couldn't help but compare the frantic energy to something like La crise est finie, though this one feels a bit more claustrophobic. It’s very much a studio-bound production. You can almost smell the old stage lights burning out in the corners of the set. Everything is very tight, very loud, and very 1930s.

• The supporting cast is just there to look surprised.
• I think someone forgot to close the door in the background of that cafe scene.
• The music is… a lot. It never stops.

Some of the dialogue moves so fast you might miss the joke, but then again, the jokes are mostly people shouting over each other. It’s chaotic, but it’s a sweet kind of chaos. It’s definitely not as weird as Die Luftpiraten, which is a good thing if you’re looking for something that actually stays on the ground.

Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it better than staring at a wall for an hour? Definitely. Just don't ask me to explain the ending. I’m not sure the writers knew how to finish it either, so they just kind of… stopped.

Notes from the margin:
Why are the hats so big? Seriously. Every time someone enters a room, I’m worried they’re going to knock over a lamp with their headgear. Also, the lighting shift in the third act is bizarre. It goes from bright office-space lighting to 'dramatic noir' in about three seconds. 🙄