2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Die Feuerzangenbowle" or "The Punch Bowl" is a German black-and-white sound film that was made during the days of World War II. It is a truly unpolitical film, however, as it deals with a famous writer going back to school in order to play pranks on his new teachers and also have the whole school experience again as he did not have it when he was young. Or is all that really true? The last scene makes us think otherwise and puts a question mark behind the entire point of the film. Helmut Weiss and Heinrich Spoerl wrote and directed this one and I am not familiar with any of the two I have to admit. But lead actor Heinz Rühmann is still very well-known, at least here in Germany, many years after his death. He plays the part well I have to say and elevates the material a lot with his approach to the character.It is mostly a fun film, there are dramatic moments, but I was not too impressed by any of these. Unfortunately, most of the comedy is also not too entertaining or the film just hasn't aged that well. It certainly is something different that you would not necessarily expect from the days of War in Europe. The entire thing runs for slightly over 90 minutes, so it's not too long of a film. Still, the lack of really entertaining comedy resulted in the film dragging on several occasions for me. The funniest thing (apart from Rühmann) is probably the teachers. The romance did nothing for me and the other students were just there to make Rühmann seem even funnier. Not one of them is elaborated on properly in terms of who they are. That is all. I give this one a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

kcdejesus I've just seen this movie with several german friends and, although my German is really poor and there were no subtitles (only a good friend helping me to understand it), I found it quite a sweet classic film which I feel really happy to have discovered. The simple and yet funny story about a man that "returns" to childhood in order to make all sorts of jokes to the grownups is just so well carried out that, despite not even being german-speaker, can be easily watched with a smile on the face. Sure enough, most of the jokes can't be understood for non-german speakers (and sometimes not even for german themselves!) but the performers play sincerely great roles and at many times a face is worth a thousand words. To sum up, a film I would like to see once again (I hope next time with subtitles, at least ;) and quite a cult-movie in its home country, where many people watch it as a tradition once a year... It's tender, it's sweet, somehow naïve... Eine wuenderschoene Filme, wuerde ich sagen!

punkrockerzero Even though filmed as the second world war came to a close my home country managed to sedate people not on the front yet with this humorous masterpiece that is still astonishing 56 years after its release. if it wasn`t for the nazis, this movie with Heinz Rühmann in his genuine role would have been celebrated world wide right away. it has all the wit of the 'good side' of German culture and somehow manages to leave out anything 'political' by a far cry. just a plain great amusing movie that features infantile friendship and adventure and all the fun of being young while never getting rid of the stains of being a movie people were meant to view to forget the crazy war out there.

giraffelover "Die Feuerzangenbowle" is an adaption of a novel by Heinrich Spoehrl. And it is perhaps the best comedy which ever was made in Germany. There are many jokes and funny scenes in this movie. For example "Pfeiffer" with three "f" one before the "ei" (or in English "egg") and two after the "ei". The entire cast is top notch. Heinz Ruehmann is one of my favorite actors. And one of his films "The Captain of Koepenick" received an Oscar nomination.