Car-napping

Car-napping
Directed by	Wigbert Wicker
Produced by	Lothar H. Krischer
Starring	Bernd Stephan Anny Duperey Hans Beerhenke Götz Kauffmann
Music by	Sam Spence
Release date	1980 (1980)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German

Car-napping is a German comedy about international car thieves from 1980 with Bernd Stephan and Anny Duperey.

Story

On returning from an extended vacation, designer Robert Mehring must notice to his complete surprise that the company he used to work for does not exist anymore. The owner of the business, Benninger, has secretly liquidated the business and fled abroad with Mehrings drafts. Mehring locates Benninger on the Côte d'Azur and confronts him - without any success.

Later Mehring has to realize that his Porsche 911 was stolen, including all his papers. The local police chief makes clear that Mehring can't expect any help from the side of the authorities. Incidentally a short time later Mehring discovers his car in traffic and confronts the thieves, two Italians named Carlo and Mario, as they want to sell the 911 to a dealer. In return for not being reported to the police, the car thieves offering their cooperation. At first Mehring declines, but after learning that his former boss Benninger owns a car dealership in Paris with 40 Porsches, Mehring accepts the offer of Carlo and Mario. With the help of other chums, they steal all 40 cars in a single night and sell them.

Mehring becomes the head of the "Carnappers" stealing luxury vehicles on order, including the printer Herrmann Aichinger who was also a victim of Benninger and is now making falsificated documents The "business" runs well until Mehring gets blackmailed and falls in love with Claudia Klessing, a lawyer. He wants to cop out, but just after the final coup in Salzburg he's been caught by the police. Thanks to the help of Claudia and Herrmann, Mehring can escape from pretrial detention.

Cast

• Bernd Stephan - Robert Mehring
• Anny Duperey - Claudia Klessing
• Hans Beerhenke - Herrmann Aichinger
• Peter Kuhnert - Mario
• Luigi Tortora - Carlo
• Ivan Desny - Consul Barnet
• Adrian Hoven - Benninger
• Götz Kauffmann -
• Dieter Augustin - Fischer
• Michel Galabru - Thibaut
• Eddie Constantine - Laroux, police officer
• Adolfo Celi - Head of police in Palermo

Critics

"Charming Gentleman-caper comedy."
– Cinema

"A rather unassuming, but expensive caper comedy, which is distinguished by its predominantly witty and pleasing style from the majority of local comedy products."
– Lexikon des internationalen Films

External links

• Car-napping at IMDb