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The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven

1968 film by Rolf Thiele

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ1212157 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven (German: Die Ente klingelt um halb acht) is a 1968 Italian-West German comedy film directed by Rolf Thiele and starring Heinz Rühmann, Hertha Feiler and Graziella Granata. It was shot at the Bavaria Studios in Munich. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Wolf Englert and Herbert Strabel.

Synopsis

Computer engineer Doctor Alexander collides with an elephant and when he excitedly explains this to a police patrol he finds himself sent to a mental institution where he sets about disrupting the routines.

Cast

Heinz Rühmann as Dr. Alexander

Hertha Feiler as Adele

Graziella Granata as Dr Jaspers

Charles Regnier as Professor Sauermann

John van Dreelen as Rechtsanwalt Kellermann

Balduin Baas as Lesender

Rudolf Schündler as Staatsanwalt

Alexander Allerson as Tommy

Monica Teuber as Ulrike

Inge Marschall as Krankenschwester

Angela Hillebrecht as Ilse

Hans Epskamp as Polizeiarzt

Herbert Bötticher as Verkäufer

Sammy Drechsel as Reporter

References

Bibliography

Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. The Concise CineGraph. Encyclopedia of German Cinema. Berghahn Books, 2009..

Rabkin, Leslie Y. The Celluloid Couch: An Annotated International Filmography of the Mental Health Professional in the Movies and Television, from the Beginning to 1990.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven” as 1968 film by Rolf Thiele. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1968, 2009, 1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1968. The account is most persuasive where Duck, Rings and Half can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1968 film by Rolf Thiele. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1212157. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 2009 and 1990.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven primary sources, The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven archive and Duck research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Duck Rings at Half Past Seven” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.