The Punch Bowl (1944) on Netflix
At a Feuerzangenbowle gathering, writer Dr. Johannes Pfeiffer hears friends recall their school days and regrets missing that experience. He poses as pupil Hans Pfeiffer at a high school.
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- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.7/107,076 votes
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Trailer
Plot summary
Dr. Johannes Pfeiffer is a successful young writer, but private tutors taught him at home, so he never attended school. At a Feuerzangenbowle gathering, his friends trade nostalgic stories about their own school days, and he decides to experience what he missed. He goes to a small town and enrolls at a secondary school under the name Hans Pfeiffer. There he joins his new classmates in pranks aimed at their teachers, Professor Crey and Professor Bömmel, and at headmaster Knauer. His lady friend Marion urges him to stop the charade and return to his writing. Eva Knauer, the headmaster's daughter, is another person he encounters, and Pfeiffer must keep his real identity hidden.
Cast
- Lutz Götzas Oberlehrer Dr. Brett
- Clemens Hasseas Rudi Knebel
- Rudi Schippelas Streber Luck
- Georg-Michael Wagneras Ackermann
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Punch Bowl (1944)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's release was nearly blocked because education secretary Bernhard Rust, a former high-school teacher, objected to its mockery of teachers; producer Heinz Rühmann dodged a censorship ban by screening it for Hermann Göring at the Führerhauptquartier, where it went down well.
- Since the 1980s the film has been a cult favourite at German universities, where students bring props to party-like December screenings and ring alarm clocks whenever one rings on screen; in 2006 more than 10,000 students joined the tradition in Göttingen alone.
- Heinz Rühmann was already 42 years old when he played the schoolboy Hans Pfeiffer in the film, far older than the pupil he was portraying.
