Professor Karl Michaeli is a former star cellist and grantler , as he is in the book. After the death of his beloved wife Maria in 2014, the retired music professor lives alone in a three-room apartment in Vienna. To his displeasure, several foreign families are housed in his apartment building. The widowed, free-spirited apartment building owner Esther Polgar also houses refugees in his home. These are a special thorn in Karl's side.
The death of Ottakring's last godfather and the encounter with a very clever young woman unintentionally turn the clever crook Sammy into the business-minded driving force of an Austrian parallel world in the midst of the global economic crisis.
After suffering a severe head injury on the job, criminal investigator Tommy Wehrschitz is being suspended – for his own good. In order to deal with the changes in his life he decides to go to southern Burgenland, to sell property he inherited from his estranged father. Barely arrived, Tommy is invited to see the circus, which is currently in the village, but the colorful spectacle is cut short when a flying knife misses its target and kills an audience member instead.
Herbert Krcal (Roland Düringer) and his wife Margit (Nina Proll) dream of owning a home. They prefer to do this in the "Blue Lagoon", a prefabricated house park in the south of Vienna, where they regularly go on pilgrimage with their son Philipp. Just as regularly, they have to recognize the bitter truth that they cannot actually afford the dream house they have visited.
After the last concert of a long tour, Dr. Kurt Ostbahn retires to his favorite café to relax. He is suddenly dragged into a bizarre criminal case. His vacation then fills with vice, perversion and murder. Of course, this is not just a story; Dr. Kurt Ostbahn experienced everything himself! The characters are not inventions; they are personal acquaintances of Dr. Ostbahn. Only the names and details have been changed so as to make them barely recognizable. And the story is more exciting than real life.
Using original texts from Qualtinger, the two authors develop a pandemonium of 'Viennese cordiality'. Set in a municipal building, in the Prater and the surrounding streets, sausage stands, etc., characters and unerring punchlines result in an enjoyable Viennese film, written for the squad of local cabaret artists.
Thomas, a student drop-out, keeps his head above water with a life of petty crime. Passing himself off once again as a ticket inspector on a tram to extract money from fare-dodgers, he is confronted by Erich, a genuine inspector, or so it seems... However, Erich won his inspector's identity badge at cards. The two begin to meet regularly. Thomas doesn't realise until too late that he is to play a major role in Erich's long-planned coup. The well thought out plan succeeds. Unfortunately, however, Erich has failed to consider how he can convert his booty - a lorry load of valuable carpets - into hard cash. Their problems are just beginning...
48 hours in the life of the Neugebauer family. The May weekend with a small family celebration, which was planned as peaceful and contemplative, turns out to be a kind of Rocky Horror Picture Show in Vienna's municipal housing estate. Just like the other residents, the Neugebauers are preparing for the impending Mother's Day.
The film presents the political events surrounding the Anschluss in March of 1938 through the lives of Carola Hell, a popular young actress at the prestigious Theater in der Josefstadt, and Martin Hofmann, the Jewish journalist she plans to marry. When we encounter the couple in the lovely springtime weather their future is full of promise. They are determined to stay clear of politics. Yet in the climate of the time, nobody of her prominence or his religion can remain apolitical. Although Martin's journalist friend, Drechsler, calls to inform them that the Nazis plan to take over Austria soon, they concentrate on their work and their private happiness and dismiss the warnings.
Martin Powolny, a down and out actor, calls himself Tiger. He lives in a tree house and practices his characteristic yell. An offer to make a film and an air-travel ticket entice him into the big city of Vienna. The director hopes he can finance the film if Tiger plays the leading role. There is no screen story as yet. Running away from a mean nightclub owner, Tiger is hit by an automobile and lands in a hospital.
The intellectual Willie flees from his bourgeois-academic environment, leaving behind his wife, child, and job to lead a vagabond life. In Vienna, he meets the retired laborer Josef, who becomes his closest friend. Together, they drink and roam the city. Willie makes one last attempt to visit his ex-wife in Salzburg, but she turns him away. Secretly, he takes his son Tommi with him, putting him in danger when they encounter a sinister motorcycle gang.
This film combines two very different styles: an atmospheric psycho thriller about the ice-cold hired gun (masterfully played by Frank Gorschin), and the bizarre satire of the Austrian TV serial "Kottan ermittelt".
Menschenfrauen is a film about relationships and the psychological oppression of women in society. Franz, a journalist, maintains relationships with four women. His three mistresses are introduced with television dreams of intense emotional violence (in the first dream, a mother shouts at her daughter, explaining that as a girl, she does not deserve a room of her own), and the fourth is his wife. He is desperate to have each to himself. Franz never offers a substantial sign of love, but is willing to say anything and make any promise for affection. His dependence on women for fulfilment is explained through arguments with his wife. He claims "I am my own sound. The women produce voices within me." An understandable and sometimes sympathetic antagonist is one of the films greatest strengths. The emotional damage he causes becomes believable.