{{short description|1958 film}} {{For|the silent film|The Spessart Inn (1923 film)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = ''Das Wirtshaus im Spessart''<br>''The Spessart Inn'' | image = Das Wirtshaus im Spessart movie poster.jpg | caption = Film poster showing Liselotte Pulver and Carlos Thompson. | director = [[Kurt Hoffmann]] | producer = [[Georg Witt]] | writer = Luiselotte Enderle<br>Curt Hanno Gutbrod<br>[[Heinz Pauck]]<br>based on a novella by [[Wilhelm Hauff]] | starring = [[Liselotte Pulver]] | music = [[Franz Grothe]] | cinematography = [[Richard Angst]] | editing = Claus von Boro | studio = Georg Witt-Film GmbH | distributor = [[Constantin Film]] | released = {{film date|1958|1|15|df=yes}} | runtime = 99 minutes | country = West Germany | language = German }}
'''''The Spessart Inn''''' ({{langx|de|'''Das Wirtshaus im Spessart'''}}) is a 1958 West German musical comedy film directed by [[Kurt Hoffmann]]. It starred [[Liselotte Pulver]] and [[Carlos Thompson]].
==Plot== In the late years of the 18th century, Felix and Peter, two [[journeyman|journeymen]], are travelling across the [[Spessart]] hills to [[Würzburg]]. Scared of the bandits that plague these parts, especially after a brief encounter with them, the two are glad to find an inn in the middle of the forest. However, it turns out that they have wandered into a den of thieves. The owners are in league with the bandits, who this very night plan to abduct Franziska, the Comtesse von Sandau, who is travelling through the forest with a group including her fiancé, Baron Sperling. Their coach is waylaid by a trap and the bandits direct them to the nearby inn. The waitress warns the journeymen of impending danger and they pass on the warning to the nobles. During the night, the brigands arrive. To escape, the Comtesse switches places with Felix and, in a man's clothes, escapes with Peter. Felix (as Comtesse), Franziska's maid and the pastor are taken to the bandits' lair. The bandits send Baron Sperling on his way to convey their ransom demand for 20,000 guilders to Graf Sandau, Franziska's father.
When Franziska arrives at her father's castle, he refuses to pay the ransom for the commoner who has taken his daughter's place. Instead, Graf Sandau decides to send the military against the bandits. Franziska thus rides to the bandits' lair and pretends to be a highwayman herself. The bandit leader accepts her as a henchman, but makes her sleep in his hut. In the morning he discovers her true identity but keeps this information from his men.
When Graf Sandau finds out that the Comtesse has gone to the bandits he sends Baron Sperling to the inn with the ransom money. The soldiers shadow him but the plan to follow the bandits back to their lair fails. Meanwhile, at the bandits' lair, their corporal finds out that the "Comtesse" they have imprisoned is a man. Franziska, on the pretense that she wants to find out the truth about the prisoner, switches back places with Felix, which saves his life but makes her a prisoner. The corporal wants to kill her and a confrontation ensues. The leader sides with the prisoners and during the fight, the parson escapes. The soldiers find the bandits' lair, but the leader snatches the Comtesse and rides off.
Franziska conceals the bandit leader in her father's castle. He reveals to her that he is in fact the son of an Italian Count from whom Graf Sandau borrowed money in the past, which he never repaid. After his father's death he came to Germany to recover his money from Graf Sandau, but before he could do so he was taken prisoner by the bandits. They forced him to join their band and eventually he became their leader. The planned abduction of the Comtesse was intended to make Graf Sandau finally pay the money he owed.
The soldiers search the castle and the bandit leader flees. However, he returns and elopes with Franziska who was about to marry Baron Sperling—a purely financial match set up by her father. The bandit leader/count takes Franziska in lieu of the money he is owed and they drive off in a wagon.
==Cast== {{Div col|colwidth=25em}} * [[Liselotte Pulver]] as Comtesse Franziska von Sandau * [[Carlos Thompson]] as Bandit Captain * [[Günther Lüders]] as Baron Eberhard Sperling * [[Rudolf Vogel]] as Parucchio * [[Wolfgang Neuss]] as Knoll * Wolfgang Müller as Funzel * [[Ina Peters]] as Maid Barbara * [[Kai Fischer]] as Bettina * [[Veronika Fitz]] as Louise * [[Herbert Hübner]] as Graf Sandau * [[Hubert von Meyerinck]] as Obrist von Teckel * [[Helmuth Lohner]] as Felix * [[Hans Clarin]] as Peter * [[Paul Esser]] as Bandit Corporal * Otto Storr as Parson * [[Karl Hanft]] as Jacob * [[Heini Göbel]] as Coachman Gottlieb * Ernst Brasch as Servant Anton * [[Vera Complojer]] as Landlady * Anette Karmann as Kitchen Maid Adele * Georg Lehn as Stadtbote * [[Ralf Wolter]] as Bandit<ref name="Filmportal2"/> {{Div col end}}
==Production== The script was based on an 1826 novella by [[Wilhelm Hauff]] and written by Heinz Pauck and Luiselotte Enderle. Curt Hanno Gutbrod also worked on the script.<ref name="Filmportal2"/> An earlier film version of Hauff's story had been released in 1923, directed by Adolf Wenter and starring Friedrich Berger and Ellen Kürty.<ref name="Filmportal1">{{cite web|url=http://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/das-wirtshaus-im-spessart_ea43d4a716a95006e03053d50b37753d|title=Filmportal: Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (1923)|access-date=25 May 2013}}</ref>
The film was shot at the [[Bavaria Studios]] in [[Munich]] with sets designed by the [[art director]]s [[Robert Herlth]] and [[Kurt Herlth]]. ''[[Mespelbrunn Castle|Schloss Mespelbrunn]]'', actually located within the Spessart hills, was used as the castle of Graf Sandau. Another location was the market square of [[Miltenberg]], a town between the Spessart and the [[Odenwald]].
==Release== ''The Spessart Inn'' premiered on 15 January 1958 at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin.<ref name="Filmportal2">{{cite web|url=http://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/das-wirtshaus-im-spessart_ea43d4a6fa785006e03053d50b37753d|title=Filmportal: Das Wirtshaus im Spessart|access-date=25 May 2013}}</ref>
The film was entered into the [[1958 Cannes Film Festival]] and nominated for the Palme d'Or.<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3459/year/1958.html |title=Festival de Cannes: The Spessart Inn |access-date=14 February 2009|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref>
Kurt Hoffmann's ''[[The Haunted Castle (1960 film)|The Haunted Castle]]'' and ''[[Glorious Times at the Spessart Inn]]'' were sequels of a sort to this film.
==Reception== The [[Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung|Filmbewertungsstelle]] awarded the film ''Prädikat: Wertvoll''. It also received the Ernst-Lubitsch-Award in 1958. In 1960 it was awarded a "[[Bambi Award|Bambi]]" for "Artistically Best Film of the Year" and in 1961 the ''Preis der deutschen Filmkritik'' for "Best Film".
Liselotte Pulver received the ''Filmband in Silber'' for "Best Actress" at the [[Deutscher Filmpreis]] in 1958 for her role as Franziska.<ref name="Filmportal2"/>
The ''Lexikon des internationalen Films'' calls the film "a colourful, delightfully spooky and cheerful film with a parodistic touch".<ref name="Lexikon">{{cite book|last=Katholisches Institut für Medieninformation (ed.)|title=Lexikon des internationalen Films, Band 9 (German)|publisher=Rowohlt|year=1991|isbn=3499163225|pages=4339}}</ref>
More recently, theatres in several towns in Germany, including Mespelbrunn, Fulda or Donauwörth have staged plays/musicals based on the film or at least including some of the elements added to Hauff's original story.<ref name="Freilicht">{{cite web|url=http://www.wirtshaus-im-spessart-2007.de/|title=Festspiele Mespelbrunn: Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (German)|access-date=25 May 2013}}</ref><ref name="Freilicht2">{{cite web|url=http://www.freilichtbuehne-donauwoerth.de/fotos%20wirtshaus%20im%20spessart.htm/|title=Freilichtbühne Donauwörth: Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (German)|access-date=25 May 2013}}</ref> <ref name="Fulda">{{cite web|url=http://www.fulda.de/aktuelles/news/einzelansicht/das-wirtshaus-im-spessart-im-schlosstheater.html |title=Fulda.de: Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (German)|access-date=25 May 2013}}</ref>
==Further reading== * Wilhelm Hauff: The Caravan. The Sheik of Alexandria and his Slaves. The Inn in the Spessart (Classic Reprint). Forgotten Books, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1440069499}}. * Klaus Rosenthal: Das Wirtshaus im Spessart. Ein deutsches Film-Musical (German). Schlossallee-Verlag, Mespelbrunn 1998. (self-published)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|id=0051200|title=The Spessart Inn}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spessart Inn, The}} [[Category:1958 films]] [[Category:1958 musical comedy films]] [[Category:1950s adventure comedy films]] [[Category:1950s historical comedy films]] [[Category:1950s historical musical films]] [[Category:German historical comedy films]] [[Category:German musical comedy films]] [[Category:German adventure comedy films]] [[Category:German historical musical films]] [[Category:West German films]] [[Category:1958 German-language films]] [[Category:Films directed by Kurt Hoffmann]] [[Category:Films based on works by Wilhelm Hauff]] [[Category:Films set in the 18th century]] [[Category:Films set in forests]] [[Category:Cross-dressing in German films]] [[Category:Constantin Film films]] [[Category:Films shot at Bavaria Studios]] [[Category:Spessart]] [[Category:1958 German films]] [[Category:Films scored by Franz Grothe]] [[Category:German-language musical comedy films]] [[Category:German-language adventure comedy films]] [[Category:German-language historical comedy films]]