Das Millionenspiel (TV 1970)

A candidate in a game show is hunted by three men. He will get a Million DMark, if he survives for a week; the hunters will get the money, if they can kill the candidate. The audience of ... See full summary »

Director:

Tom Toelle

Writers:

Wolfgang Menge (screenplay), Robert Sheckley (novel)

Stars:

Jörg Pleva, Suzanne Roquette, Dieter Thomas Heck

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jörg Pleva	...	Bernhard Lotz
Suzanne Roquette	...	Claudia von Hohenheim (as Susanne Roquette)
Dieter Thomas Heck	...	Thilo Uhlenhorst
Theo Fink	...	Hänsel, Mitglied der 'Köhlerbande'
Dieter Hallervorden	...	Köhler, Chef der 'Köhlerbande'
Josef Fröhlich	...	Witte, Mitglied der 'Köhlerbande'
Annemarie Schradiek	...	Mutter Lotz
Elisabeth Wiedemann	...	Frau Steinfurth
Andrea Grosske	...	Frau Grote
Friedrich Schütter	...	Moulian, Chef von TETV
Peter Schulze-Rohr	...	Ziegler
Joachim Richert	...	Hotelkellner
Arnim Basche	...	Erster Außenreporter TETV
Heribert Faßbender	...	Zweiter Außenreporter TETV (as Heribert Fassbender)
Ralf Gregan	...	Sanitäter

Storyline

A candidate in a game show is hunted by three men. He will get a Million DMark, if he survives for a week; the hunters will get the money, if they can kill the candidate. The audience of the show is watching the transmissions of twenty camera teams filming the hunt. The showmaster appeals to the TV-viewers to help either the candidate or the hunters, whomever they want.

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Plot Keywords:

man hunt | pursuer | fake documentary | escape | cult film | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

WDR [de]

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

18 October 1970 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

The Millions Game

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

After the second broadcast in the 1970s, public broadcaster WDR, which produced the film, was sued by producer Joseph Cates who owned the film rights. The problem was that WDR purchased the rights to make the film from German publishing company Goldmann, who released the book the film was based on. However, Goldmann did not own the film rights, so the licence WDR bought was void. This was confirmed by the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt in 1977. Since then the film was not shown publicly anywhere. Only in 2002 WDR was finally able to acquire the proper rights from Studio Canal, which in the meantime had become the rights owner.

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Connections

Version of Le prix du danger (1983)

User Reviews

Lotz is running to save his life - if he manages to survive seven days he'll get one million DeutschMarks

The fiction seems to be perfect: Millions of TV-watchers experience the hunting of Bernhard Lotz, who as a candidate for a TV-Show is hunted seven days by a professional team of killers. Lotz is running to save his life - if he manages to survive the seven days he'll get one million DeutschMarks. What sounds like one of those cheap SciFi - Productions is produced in very realistic style. The airplay was 1970 - and some people could not decide whether it's fiction or reality. Some called the TV-Stations and complained about it, some asked to be the next candidate and some even asked if they could join the team of killers. The Author of this tv-drama has seen the future in a very realistic way: The breaks for tasteless advertising in the show, the boss of the private television station who does everything to boost the ratings, the talking about very intimate things with people on air etc. Nowadays people do the craziest things in those so called "reality shows" to get some money even do without their personal freedom and numerous human rights. Everything in this film which was fiction that time has become quite common today except of killing people - this makes the movie much more than one of those Hollywood stories, it's a document of time...