Das Baby is a typical post-war allegory on male angst – presented here in the genre of broad comedy. Hans, a man of short stature (who nevertheless pictures himself as a womanizer) falls in love with a big, bold wet-nurse. As she refuses his advances he literally regresses to infancy and poses as a baby. Thus he manages to become intimate with the object of his affection in a way we today could easily call ‘perverted’…

The missing ending of the film supposedly has concluded the joke, since a subplot involves Hans’ uncle who threatens to withdraw his financial backing unless his nephew makes him laugh once more. In a nicely done superimposition his image is looming – larger than life, as only cinema can present it – over the dreamers bed. The old man’s face later became popular with generations of Austrian and German movie audiences – Das Baby features the earliest known screen appearance of Hans Moser.

Michael Loebenstein – Österreichisches Filmmuseum