Some claim that this film was made to boost sagging Nazi morale as their world conquest began to falter in early 1943. Please, people, think a moment. This film took two years to make, so if it was released in spring 1943, it would have gone into production in early '41, when the Nazis were still on the rise toward their late 1942 peak of conquest. Plus, the pre-production must have taken a while also, so this film probably started in the conceptual stage as far back as 1939 or 1940! Munchhausen has a swashbuckling feel - with cavalier characters performing outrageous stunts with seeming effortlessness. The funniest is the runner who zips through the countryside like a rocket and isn't even out of breath when he stops. Hans Albers is both good and bad as the lead. He is clearly too old to fit the description of an eternally young man (the jowls alone are a dead giveaway), but his coolly aristocratic and macho bearing seem to suit the type he is playing, so you are able to go along with it. The casual female nudity in the harem scene is another reminder of how advanced over Hollywood the European cinema was in its attitude toward the body. The film's depiction of blacks is no more or less racist than Hollywood's at the time.
Although scene flows quickly into scene - there is nevertheless a tedium about the whole business, perhaps because the emotional tone within the scenes is so cool and so talky. No one seems to feel anything very deeply, so it's hard for the audience to feel anything much either. All we can do is applaud the sumptuous set pieces, the endless stunts and cleverness, and chuckle at the silly "magic tricks" like the clothing that dances or the ointment that makes mustaches spring from clean-shaven faces or the gun whose sight can see a target many miles away.
Although scene flows quickly into scene - there is nevertheless a tedium about the whole business, perhaps because the emotional tone within the scenes is so cool and so talky. No one seems to feel anything very deeply, so it's hard for the audience to feel anything much either. All we can do is applaud the sumptuous set pieces, the endless stunts and cleverness, and chuckle at the silly "magic tricks" like the clothing that dances or the ointment that makes mustaches spring from clean-shaven faces or the gun whose sight can see a target many miles away.