Strange German tradition on New Year's Eve

From the LA Times:

GERMANS HAVE a rather peculiar New Year's Eve tradition. Everybody — yes, really, everybody — gathers around the TV to watch "Dinner for One," a short black-and-white comedy, in English, about an aristocrat and her butler.

Given the film's astounding popularity, Germans assume that "Dinner for One" is a classic of British cinema, that it must be a huge hit elsewhere in the world — and they feel lucky to be in on the big English joke. It can be a terrible blow to the average German's weltanschauung when he finds out that the English-speaking world is largely unaware of this pearl of British comedy.

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