History Film / Munchhausen

* CoolGun: The Baron's servant Christian invents a gun that can hit targets 100 miles away.

* MyGrandsonMyself: The 1943 Baron claims to be a descendant of the famous 18th century Baron whose portrait hangs promintely in the mansion. They are, of course, one and the same guy.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Given the movies episodic nature, many characters dissapear and reappear seemingly randomly throughout the story. Especially Münchhausens various romantic interests fall victim to this.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mun02.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Don't try this at home.]]

!!Tropes:

It's based on the popular folk tales about the adventurous 18th-century nobleman Baron Munchausen (spelled "Münchhausen" in Germany, and therefore in this film as well). In the modern day, a descendant of the Baron has invited a young couple for dinner. The young man, who is very interested in the historical Münchhausen, asks the current Baron to tell about his famous ancestor. The latest Baron then tells stories of the grand and magical adventures of his ancestor, which included being a consort to UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, riding a flying cannonball into a Turkish fortress, acquiring an invisibility ring, and flying a balloon to the Moon.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/20215052.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mun02.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Don't try this at home.]]

* DarkHumor:

* SpecialEffectFailure: The special effects on the disembodied head of the moon woman are very impressive for the time and consistently good until the last shot where she is seen, where her head is obviously just a mannequin head.

* ContrivedCoincidence: The authorities in Venice are after the Baron. How to get away? Good thing that the inventor of the hot air balloon happens to be in town demonstrating his device.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Among the RealLife people the Baron meets on his adventures are Tsarina Catherine the Great, her minister Grigory Potemkin (of "Potemkin village" fame), and Jean-Pierre Blanchard, inventor of the hot air balloon. And in fact Baron von Münchhausen himself was inspired by a real 18th century German nobleman who liked to tell tall tales. (The real Baron von Münchhausen was still alive when the folk tales were published and was very pissed off over having his name associated with fictional stories.)

Not to be confused with ''Munchausen 2013''.

It's based on the popular folk tales about the adventurous nobleman Baron Munchausen (spelled "Münchhausen" in Germany, and therefore in this film as well). In the modern day, a descendant of the Baron has invited a young couple for dinner. The young man, who is very interested in the historical Münchhausen, asks the current Baron to tell about his famous ancestor. The latest Baron then tells stories of the grand and magical adventures of his ancestor, which included being a consort to UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, riding a flying cannonball into a Turkish fortress, acquiring an invisibility ring, and flying a balloon to the Moon.

''Munchhausen'' is a 1943 film directed by Josef von Baky, made in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.

It is based on the popular folk tale of the adventurous nobleman Baron von Munchausen. In the modern day, a descendant of the Baron has invited a young couple for dinner. The young man, who is very interested in the historical Baron von Munchhausen (spelled in this film with two H's for some reason), asks the current Baron von Munchhausen to tell about his famous ancestor. The latest Baron then tells stories of the grand and magical adventures of his ancestor, which included being a consort to UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, riding a flying cannonball into a Turkish fortress, acquiring an invisibility ring, and flying a balloon to the Moon.

''Munchhausen'' was conceived by Joseph Goebbels as a spectacular color extravaganza meant to rival Hollywood productions like ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''. It contains no overt propaganda message, and really not even a covert propaganda message, instead adopting a tone of light whimsical fantasy meant to distract Germans at a time when UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was turning bad. It was made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Ufa film studio, and no expense was spared, including location shooting in Venice (UsefulNotes/FascistItaly being in the German orbit).

* TheCasanova: ''The'' Casanova, in the person of Giacomo Casanova, an old acquaintance of Munchhausen who meets him again in Venice. Actually averted with the original Casanova, who is older and past his romancing days, but played straight in the case of Munchhausen himself. The Baron cuts a swath through the women of Europe, with conquests including Catherine the Great and Isabella the Italian princess.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: Munchhausen loses Isabella forever when her slimy brother has her locked up in a convent.

* EverybodyCallsHimBarkeep: The supernaturally fast runner who works for Munchhausen is called only "the Runner" (Der Läufer). And the Turkish sultan has a servant called Clock, who is exactly that. Clock swings a pendulum from his hand and counts off time by the second.

* FramingDevice: The 1943 Baron telling von Hartenfeld and Sophie stories of the magical adventures of his ancestor, the 18th century Baron von Munchhausen.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Among the RealLife people the Baron meets on his adventures are Tsarina Catherine the Great, her minister Grigory Potemkin (of "Potemkin village" fame), and Jean-Pierre Blanchard, inventor of the hot air balloon. And in fact Baron von Munchhausen himself was inspired by a real 18th century German nobleman who liked to tell tall tales. (The real Baron von Munchausen was still alive when the folk tales were published and was very pissed off over having his name associated with fictional stories.)

* {{Lunarians}}: Baron von Munchausen and his sidekick fly a balloon to the Moon. They find a genial race of moon people that can exist as whole bodies or just disembodied heads, as well as a weird Year Outside, Hour Inside time warp.

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The ending reveals that the 1943 Baron '''is''' the famous Baron von Munchhausen, who has survived into the present day thanks to the gift of immortality bestowed on him by Cagliostro.
* RoyalHarem: The Turkish sultan has one. Munchhausen liberates Isabella from the sultan's harem, but not before the sultan tries to welch on his bet and give Munchhausen another woman in her place.
* SuperSpeed: Munchhausen's runner, who is called, uh, the Runner, can make a journey in 20 minutes that would take two days for a normal man on foot. He puts the Runner's skills to use when he wins his freedom by betting the Turkish sultan that the Runner can make it to Vienna and back in an hour.

* Really700YearsOld: The ending reveals that the 1943 Baron '''is''' the famous Baron von Munchhausen, who has survived into the present day thanks to the gift of immortality bestowed on him by Cagliostro.

It is based on the popular folk tale of the adventurous nobleman Baron von Munchausen. In the modern day, a descendant of the Baron has invited a young couple for dinner. The young man, who is very interested in the historical Baron von Munchhausen (spelled in this film with two H's for some reason), asks the current Baron von Munchhausen to tell about his famous ancestor. The latest Baron then tells stories of the grand and magical adventures of his ancestor, which included being a consort to UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, riding a cannonball into a Turkish fortress, acquiring an invisibility ring, and flying a balloon to the Moon.

* InvisibilityCloak: Cagliostro has a unique version of this: an invisibility ring that is a one-shot deal, giving the wearer ten minutes of invisibility before the wearer becomes visible again and the ring becomes an ordinary ring.

* YearInsideHourOutside: A curious example. The Moon exists in some sort of time warp where time is sped up; an hour on the moon is equivalent to a year on Earth. Unfortunately, people on the Moon still age by Earth time, so after an hour on the Moon, you have physically aged a year. This is no problem for the Baron as he never ages due to Cagliostro's magic. However, his faithful servant Kuchenreutter has no magic charm, so over the span of a few hours Kuchenreutter grows old and dies of old age.