Colette Brettel

König der Mittelstürmer / King of the Centre Forwards refers with the name of its hero to the German soccer legend of the twenties: Tull Harder, star of the Hamburger Sport Verein (HSV). But the story itself is completely fictitious: The son of a trade company's director falls in love with the daughter of a big American oil magnat. But she suspects him to be only interested in her money. So she buys his father's company to take revenge on him. The son's true love is soccer, and from the very first moment the soccer fever is present throughout the film. It starts with pictures of a soccer game and even an apple or a crumpled up paper must serve as substitute for a ball. Whereas Die elf Teufel promotes soccer as "the sport of the century", König der Mittelstürmer shows the hero's father who still has to be convinced from its importance. He hates soccer and blames everybody to be "soccer crazy".

The film follows the comic (mis)adventures of a poor street musician, who is roped into posing as an eccentric nobleman. He and his antics are rapturously received by the members of a bourgeois family desperate to mingle with the aristocracy. The daughter of the family takes a fancy to the baron (in reality, merely a “joke baron”), assuming him to be immensely wealthy.

A Hungarian countess, wanting to dissuade unwanted suitors, announces her engagement to a fictional count Zsupán. Things go awry when a count Zsupán shows up, having heard of his engagement in the papers.

The first screen adaptation of Emily Bronte's book about star cross'd lovers who demolish themselves and everyone around them with their self-destructive love.