Two Times Lotte (1950)

Such a frustrating disappointment

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Two girls: one lives with the father and the other with the mother.As they are twins they exchange their personalities and their parents do not notice it.They are trying to rebuild their family ,to reconcile them.This is the kind of stuff which might seem maudlin ,but Joseph Von Baky's treatment is pleasant,nay even interesting: the dreams scenes are the best as if the scenarists had read Bruno Bettelheim (whose book about fairy tales was yet to come).Germany was very fond at the time of those sentimental comedies .It was also Romy Schneider's debut and most of her films were of the same kind.A movie for the whole family,actually for the parents provided that they still keep their child's soul.

Because it has been decades since I saw this on TV late at night while babysitting as a teenager, I don't remember all the details, but I think it had subtitles. Is an English subtitled version available on video or DVD? I would love to know. It was, in my memory superior to the Haley Mills version which came out later. How would I track down whether, indeed this is the one that was televised back then? And I wonder if the book has been translated into English. I will have to check on that.As I recall the black and white film that I saw, it wasn't quite as silly as the Disney one or the most recent one, but I am not sure.

There have been many remakes of this movie, mainly in the US and in Germany, but this is the one and only real one!!! Following the book line by line, even the authors comments (given by the author Erich Kästner himself in the movie!) on what is happening, the story is highly enjoyable and more than touching! Set in Austria/southern Germany in the beginning fifties, the story about the unhappy divorce of the famous musician and conductor Ludwig Palffy and the hardworking (at that time!!!) mother/journalist Louiselotte Körner is ever so realistic. Don't let yourself being prejudiced by it's old appearance; this movie is worth watching! Sentiments and misunderstandings, a laugh and a cry, everything comes up. Here, the switch is kept up for at least a couple of weeks, with all the difficult situations to master. In the later movies, like the latest Parent Trap, how funny and nice that one is, the exchange doesn't last more than a few days. But these original Lotte and Louise had a REALLY hard time, keeping it up so long!To me, all the main characters are sympathetic, and that's a must in a movie like this. You really want them to get together again, and are so happy when they finally manage! With, as a symbol, Palffy's atelier moved to the condo next door, instead of somewhere else in the city.The only real minus is the fact that the twins Louise and Lotte don't really look alike. It's quite easy to tell them apart, and therefore rather strange that nobody notices. Their acting isn't all that fantastic either, but on the whole this movie is - at least in my opinion - the best parenttrapmovie ever made.

"Das Doppelte Lottchen" still is a very popular children's book in Germany, and all over the world. Written by Erich Kästner, the book has been turned into countless movies (with the recent "It Takes Two" coming to mind), but this black-and-white German classic still is the best. The story is well-known, and revolves around two girls who find out that they are separated twins, and decide to change identities, in order to reunite their divorced parents. This, of course, leads to many complicated and funny situations. Skip all the other American versions, this German classic is the one to watch. 7/10