Die Ente klingelt um halb acht

In my estimate the film isn't as bad as the comment of Jan Onderwater suggests. It has some great moments and colorful details, for instance the set decorations. The crazy director of the mental hospital, cracking matches all the time to get his nervousness under control, is sitting in front of a painting, that instantly makes you laugh: a big red splash like blood on a white canvas. The hallways and rooms of the hospital are equipped with psychedelic and op-art paintings and you ask yourself, whether they decorate the interior of the institution or rather create the madness going on inside it. All in all the film is about the eternal question, who is crazier, the lunatic or the society he lives in. The performances of the actors is not consistent. Sometimes the two stars of the film, Heinz Rühmann and Charles Régnier, act quite brilliantly, sometimes they look kind of misplaced, but obviously owing to a weak director's leading rather than to their own abilities. The weak sides of the film include severe mistakes of timing, for instance in many of the hunt scenes, and a lack of sense for the increase and decrease of dramatic suspense. Still the film is a child of its time in the best sense and therefore has its true value, although it is far from perfect.