it not all that often that toady get what come to them . too often and when their political toadying day wind down and they join important new york law firm or become washington consultant and toady in only a slightly different milieu and and able now to directly afford their bespoke suit and strip steak dinner at the capital grille . but then we have diederich hessling . the place be germany and the time be before the turn of the century . diederich ( werner peter ) be a superior toady in this superior east german satire from 1951. hessling be an unlikable and pudgy little man and with a small and soft mouth . he be a perfect bourgeois and inwardly anxious and outwardly pompous . he be a fearful child and frighten of his father cane and his mother story . tattle on others at school be his satisfaction . he be attract and while at university and to the shy agnes and but when warn off by her family boarder one evening and he hurriedly leave her home . he join with pride the neo teuton to drink beer with careful ritual and fearfully gain a dueling scar . a a cadet in the kaiser army he realize and we be tell and that the whole military set up be aim to reduce one dignity to a minimum . this impress him . despite his misery he be fill with respect . ala and his flat foot hurt and he say and and soon he be release with dramatic tale to tell . then he must manage his family factory when his father dy and lord it over the worker and nuzzle the town leader . he also manage to seduce the loving agnes and who and have acquiesce be now of course unworthy of a man of his stature . his self importance be as prominent a his newly up turned moustache and identical to the kaiser . and now this pompous little man and diederich hessling and respect factory owner and lead u into a satire which be not all that amuse and with worker abuse and jewish blood gossip about and patriotic germanic delusion flower with pride . we have self satisfied town councilors and careful church leader and elderly military men and toady all in diederich stultify middle class . his factory and which appear to make huge pile of rag from huge pile of rag and prospers . dietrich have find a place for his self importance and for his inner fearfulness . the kaiser become his grail and patriotic nationalism strengthen his easily lead tattling proclivity . he be so proud of germany and german power and his german kaiser and that at his wedding to a plump and wealthy woman he introduce his guest to the late german innovation from his factory and toilet paper . but good thing and even toilet paper and never last . the obsequious diederich hessling find himself over his head in a game of anxious brown nose more complex than simply tattle on schoolmate . we may not know what dietrich fate be and but the movie give u and with heavy teutonic irony and a vivid look at what germany will be . the kaiser lackey be sharp and good fun as long a it focus on the fear and behavior we can find so amusingly contemptible in diederich . but then the film move into a more heavy handed satire of complacent bourgeois german nationalism and society . the kaiser lackey be amuse and but eventually move into tedious irony . still and if for nothing more than the satire of a smug society and a weak protagonist and as well a for werner peter skilled toady throughout and the movie be worth the time spend . the director and wolfgang staudte and have an unlikely career in film . he start out in the movie business under the nazi and eager a a young man to protect his film deferment to escape be send to the front . he direct the first german movie after wwii and the murderer be among u and in 1946 with ernst borcert and hildegard kneff . it be probably the best movie he ever make and film amidst the mile of rubble in berlin . it remain a powerful statement of guilt and redemption and hope . he direct film in east germany and then west germany and then a unify germany . staudte life itself might make a good film .