Let’s Get — High Society Limited (1982)

She was promised Frank Sinatra, but she got a cheap Groucho Marx.

We have a film, ladies and gentlemen! Click Random’s first film. 

High Society Limited. No, it’s not a sequel to High Society where Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra start a jazz magazine company named High Society Ltd, get high on crack (say nope to dope, kids), and get wrapped up in a money laundering scheme headed by the mafia.

No, this is a West German comedy from 1982 starring Elisabeth Bergner, Lilli Palmer, and Hardy Krüger. I’ll just awkwardly nod and say that I know exactly who these actors are, just like when someone that studied film for a year is talking to me about this moving Azerbaijani film they’ve watched for the tenth time. What’s that? Did someone say philistine?

I had hoped to watch this film and provide a bit of a review for my one loyal reader — thanks mum. Sadly, it seems that the film reels for the English subtitled version might have been lost or damaged after David Hasselhoff threw Germany’s biggest party after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 



Instead, when searching for the film, all I could find was some strange CCTV footage of a football match. This makes me very angry.



The story goes that Else (Elisabeth Bergner) is looking for a new place to rescue a busy house. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Let’s try a different translation.

It appears that Else was born into wealth, but parts from her family and requests that her share of the wealth should be donated to the poor in India. Now she’s homeless. Else needs a place to stay, so she makes her way back to her sister, whom I might assume is Hilde (Lilli Palmer). On her way, Else witnesses a failed bank robbery. It sounds as if the bank robbers kidnapped Else and essentially put a ransom on her head to be paid by Hilde and the family company.

Unbeknownst to the criminals or Else, the assets of the company had been sold off to creditors. The bank robbers wisely negotiate with the creditors, only to be chased by police. They escape across the Elbe River, but in the process, any money they stole had been destroyed in the water. Not a happy ending for Else and Hilde either, as they have no money and their house has been demolished, leaving them both homeless. At least I think that’s what happened.

The Germans have a beautiful sense of humour. Schadenfreude, I guess.


Random Facts

· The German title of High Society Limited (Feine Gesellschaft — beschränkte Haftung) loosely translated to Fine Company — Limited Liability.

· High Society Limited has a score of 6.7 on IMDb with ten votes. Guess those ten film studies students kinda liked it then.

· Lilli Palmer earned a Golden Globe nomination for But Not For Me.

· The Berlin International Film Festival award silver and gold bears for achievements in film. The director of High Society Limited, Ottokar Runze, won a Silver Bear for his documentary In the Name of the People.

Did you play “Clicks to Hitler/Jesus”? Comment your scores.

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