Rosy Steinberg

Love and friendship, lies and betrayal - comedies often deal with existential themes. But not always. Sometimes everyday life is enough to pick up an audience and entertain them. The audience suddenly sees themselves as experts who can give an informed opinion on what is happening on stage: In the case of "Pantoffelheld" from 1983, it was probably primarily housewives, ironing men were rather the exception back then. Among them was the newly minted househusband Daniel, who struggles with an ironing board and creased jeans. Paul Bühlmann as his buddy Georges does a much more confident job.

In a run-down hotel, only one room with two double beds is still available. The head porter, a former foreign legionnaire, and the shady hotel manager have double-booked this one room. First to an exhausted couple and then to a sales representative who is expecting his mistress, a dancer. But on this very day, his wife visits him as a birthday surprise. So now there are two couples and a dancer in one room, and even the pull-out folding screen is no solution. Everyone discovers a stranger, half-dressed, almost dressed, in the bathroom, in the beds, in the room.

SVP National Councillor Arthur Aebi has checked into the Parkhotel for a fling with SP secretary Anita Fröhlich. But when they go to admire the view, a dead body is found on the balcony. As nobody is allowed to know about the meeting between Aebi and Fröhlich, the body has to disappear. Aebi calls his secretary Willy Waser, who then gets involved in the whole mess, not entirely voluntarily.