It was shot at the Spandau Studios in West Berlin, with sets designed by the art director Hans Jürgen Kiebach.

The film starts with debris floating in the middle of the ocean, including a toilet seat, through which Otto emerges and begins to relate how he has gotten to be in this situation.

During one of his earlier attempts to make money, Otto inadvertently saves the life of Silvia von Kohlen und Reibach, the young prospective heiress of an enormous family fortune.

Otto, disguised as the radio operator, attempts to inform Interpol but instead hits the pilot's announcement system, prompting Sonnemann and Haenlein to hijack the plane.

Otto subsequently attempts to land the passenger jet on an aircraft carrier, but of course fails spectacularly, thus looping back to the film's beginning sequence.