AllMovie

A friendship between a young nine-year-old girl and an elderly woman interned at a psychiatric hospital forms the pivot around which this entertaining children's film revolves. Strictly for the younger set, the story starts out with little Marie (Julie Tumler) meeting up with Frau Maria (Inge Meysel), who is allowed out of the mental institution for brief periods every day. Frau Maria wears one red stocking on one foot to keep that leg warm while her other stocking is another color. Other than that idiosyncracy, she starts to harbor a belief that someone is trying to poison her. She was first put into the institution by her son-in-law when he took over her fish shop, and she has been unable to eat fish ever since. Eventually, she runs away from her clinic and little Marie brings her home for awhile. Rather than react against this stranger, Marie's parents are struck by the close relationship between their daughter and the older woman, and they begin to think of some way in which they can turn that friendship to good advantage.