Three Good Friends

© 2014 William Ahearn

A musical romantic comedy that is full of songs, some tap dancing and silliness that – according to one report – had a bigger box office than “The Blue Angel.” Three rich good friends return to Berlin to find their furniture marked for repossession and when they call their lawyer, he tells them that their banker is in prison for embezzlement and they are stone cold broke. Driving around trying – and singing – of what to do they run out of gas on a busy road and realize it would be the perfect spot for a gas station. So, they sell the car and open a gas station and that’s when the young woman shows up.

The young woman in question – Lilian Cossmann – was played by Lilian Harvey who starred in numerous musical comedies and light operettas that lead to a 1932 contract with 20th Century Fox that lead to Harvey walking out of Hollywood and returning to Berlin. Her most famous film is “Der Kongreß tanzt” that also stars Willy Fritsch, Otto Wallburg, Conrad Veidt, Carl-Heinz Schroth, and Lil Dagover, among others.

The music for the film is performed by the Comedian Harmonists and composed mostly by Werner R Heymann. The film – also known as “The Three from the Filling Station” and “Die Drei von der Tankstelle” – was remade in 1955.

Directed by Wilhelm Thiele from a script by Franz Schulz and Paul Frank and also stars Willy Fritsch, Heinz Rühmann, Oskar Karlweis, Fritz Kampers, and Olga Tschechowa, among others.