Peter Shoots Down the Bird

Peter Shoots Down the Bird
Peter Shoots Down the Bird
German	Peter schießt den Vogel ab
Directed by	Géza von Cziffra
Written by	Gustav Kampendonk; Géza von Cziffra
Produced by	Artur Brauner; Horst Wendlandt
Starring	Peter Alexander; Germaine Damar; Maria Sebaldt;
Cinematography	Richard Angst
Edited by	Ingrid Wacker
Music by	Kurt Feltz; Heinz Gietz
Production; companies	CCC Film; Alfa Film
Distributed by	Neue Filmverleih
Release date	14 May 1959;
Running time	89 minutes
Country	West Germany
Languages	German; French; English

Peter Shoots Down the Bird (German: Peter schießt den Vogel ab) is a 1959 West German comedy film directed by Géza von Cziffra and starring Peter Alexander, Germaine Damar and Maria Sebaldt.^[1]

It was shot at the Spandau Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Paul Markwitz and Heinrich Weidemann.

Plot

Peter Schatz is a front desk manager at a hotel where he is very popular with all the guests. However, he struggles to get along with the hotel director, who is a bit of a pedantic tyrant and feared by all staff, and switchboard lady Renate of another hotel. Beside his work he has ambitions to travel the world. When he inherits a larger sum of money from a former hotel guest in gratitude for his services to her and her dog, his colleague Mathilde suggests he could go on a ski trip into a posh ski resort in the Austrian Alps. At first his attempt to book a room in the Grand Hotel in Zürs am Arlberg is futile, as they are completely booked, so he comes up with a lie, pretending he was an Argentinian beef and cattle king to get a room.

Before he leaves, Peter drops in to the hotel director's office and tells him he needs several weeks of annual leave. The director does not want to grant these and thinks Peter has gotten crazy, so he orders an ambulance with strong carers from the local mental institution, but Peter manages to get the director mad and raging, so the director ends up in a straight jacket himself and is taken away. In the evening Peter celebrates a farewell party with all the hotel staff and in the next morning sets off on his travels.

On holiday, he incidentally meets Renate, and falls in love with her. He soon realises who she is, although she does not for him. Afraid to anger her, he keeps the tale of the cattle king going. The disguise causes a lot of confusion.

Peter attempts several types of winter and alpine sports, although he is very bad at them. Peter then attracts the attention of a fraudster lady residing in the neighbouring hotel room, who believe him to be very rich as well and scheme to rob him.

Cast

Peter Alexander as Peter Schatz
Germaine Damar as Renate Hartwig
Maria Sebaldt as Marilyn
Oskar Sima as Director Wilfried Adler
Ernst Waldow as General Bumm
Agnes Windeck as Rose
Anneliese Würtz as Marie
Edith Hancke as Fräulein Lehmann
Jo Herbst as Dr. Klaus Maria Weichholz
Axel Monjé as Marilyn's accomplice
Friedrich Schoenfelder as Toni Hartwig
Bob Iller as Portier Blümli
Herbert Weissbach as Mr. Pieps
Hans W. Hamacher as Lawyer Hammel
Christine von Trümbach
Ruth Stephan as Mathilde Hütchen

Soundtrack

Peter Alexander - "Ins weiße Wolkenschlößchen"
Peter Alexander - "Hol den Peter"
Peter Alexander - "Piccolo-Ponny"
Peter Alexander - "Torero der Liebe"

References

^ Reimer, Robert C.; Reimer, Carol J. (2010). The A to Z of German Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0810876118.

External links

Peter Shoots Down the Bird at IMDb
Peter Shoots Down the Bird is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive

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[1] Reimer, Robert C.; Reimer, Carol J. (2010). The A to Z of German Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0810876118.

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