A Shakespeare-inspired farce set in a Bavarian village. As the film opens, two feuding families, the Capulethofers and the Montekugerls, are seeking a resolution to a dispute. The judge places sausages on either side of the scale of justice and pronounces both families equally in the right-and therefore equally in the wrong. "Instead of delving into the depths of his soul, (Lubitsch) looked for truth in matter: he was an architect. Bourgeois prejudice accused him of having been a manufacturer of ready-made goods (but) Sternberg, too, profited from an apprenticeship in a lace shop. There is much eating and good eating in Lubitsch's German films. The sense of taste, smell and touch are at least as important as the artistic and cultural aspects generally favored by bourgeois taste. Never again in Germany would anyone make such plebeian films." (Enno Patalas, Munich Filmmuseum)