' ("The Game of Millions" or "Chance for a Million") is a 1970
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
action/sci-fi television film, directed by Tom Toelle and starring Jörg Pleva,
Suzanne Roquette and
Dieter Thomas Heck. It was aired by
ARD (broadcaster) on 18 October 1970.
Wolfgang Menge
Wolfgang Menge (10 April 1924 – 17 October 2012) was a German television writer and journalist.
Life
Menge worked as television writer and journalist in Germany. He was married and had three sons.The Prize of Peril
"The Prize of Peril" is a science fiction short story by Robert Sheckley. It was first published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' in May 1958 and first collected in ''Store of Infinity'' in 1960 by Bantam Books. The short story is n ...
" by the American writer
Robert Sheckley
Robert Sheckley (July 16, 1928 – December 9, 2005) was an American writer. First published in the science-fiction magazines of the 1950s, his many quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist, and broadly comical.
...
. Wolfgang Menge and Tom Toelle received the 1971
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...
for best television movie.
Plot
''Das Millionenspiel'' ("The Game of Millions") is a successful TV show from the private station TETV. To win the grand prize of one million
German marks, a candidate has to survive seven days on the run while being hunted by the Köhler gang. Of the first 14 candidates, 8 were killed during the course of the game.
Bernhard Lotz from Leverkusen
Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf.
With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is o ...
is the show's 15th candidate. After almost a week without sleep and little food, he is full of agony and on the verge of physical collapse; Lotz could drop out, but there is the prospect of the grand prize of one million marks, and he knows the fate of one of his predecessors: when he forfeited the game, he was so derided as a coward that he eventually committed suicide.
The whole country watches the manhunt on TV, some fascinated, some disgusted. Lotz tries hiding, but he is always recognized. Some want to deliver him to the Köhler gang, but some help him. Throughout the game, the Köhler gang is always hot on his heels.
The action is interspersed with scenes from the studio, where the jovial Thilo Uhlenhorst moderates and shows documentation of Lotz's life. Reporters deliver latest developments, interrupted by sexualized commercials by the (fictional) "Stabil-Elite Group". Behind the scenes, game-makers manipulate the game by helping or harming Lotz.
In the grand finale, Lotz has to pass through the "death spiral" – a 28.40-meter-long tube of bulletproof glass with three openings through which the Köhler gang can shoot him. Lotz, who is on the verge of collapse and had been treated by doctors shortly before, is slightly wounded but reaches the goal and receives the million. But according to a doctor he is in a serious state of shock, and is taken from the studio to a hospital on a stretcher. Moderator Uhlenhorst declares the 15th edition of the game over and announces the next episode three weeks later.
Cast
* Jörg Pleva: Bernhard Lotz
* Dieter Thomas Heck: Thilo Uhlenhorst
* Dieter Hallervorden
Dieter "Didi" Hallervorden (born 5 September 1935) is a German comedian, actor, singer, and cabaret artist.
He achieved great popularity in German-speaking countries in the mid-1970s with the slapstick series Nonstop Nonsens and his character ...
: Köhler
* Josef Fröhlich: Witte
* Theo Fink: Hensel
* Friedrich Schütter
Friedrich Schütter (1921–1995) was a German film and television actor. He was the German dubbing voice of Lorne Greene.
Selected filmography
* ''Operation Sleeping Bag'' (1955)
* '' The Heart of St. Pauli'' (1957)
* '' Doctor Crippen Lives' ...
: Moulian
* Peter Schulze-Rohr: Ziegler
* Annemarie Schradiek: Mother Lotz
* Elisabeth Wiedemann: Mrs. Steinfurth
* Joachim Richert: waiter
* Heribert Faßbender: reporter
* Arnim Basche: reporter
* Gisela Marx: reporter
* Andrea Grosske: Mrs. Grote
* Suzanne Roquette: Claudia von Hohenheim
* Ralf Gregan: paramedic
Background
Intentionally "exaggerat ngthe contemporary situation n televisionand project ngit into the future in order to illuminate the present", as Günter Rohrbach, then head of TV programming at WDR, said at the time, the film anticipated developments in the media, such as commercial television (which did not exist in Germany until 1984), the drive for ratings, reality shows
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
, the Big Brother effect, and constant interruptions by highly sexualized advertisements. It culminates in the moderation of Thilo Uhlenhorst (played by the popular ZDF show host Dieter Thomas Heck) and his "reporters" (also represented by well-known television and sports reporters) who cover the manhunt like a sports event.[
Menge achieved authenticity by trimmed exterior shots and cleverly interspersed "documentaries". Lotz is shown evading pursuit by dangerous and dramatic means such as jumping out of windows.][ When the film premiered on 18 October 1970 on ARD, some viewers thought they were watching a real manhunt. Before the broadcast in 1970, an announcer said that "the rules of the game were according to the January 7, 1973, federal law promoting ''leisure activities'', as published in ]Bundesgesetzblatt (Germany)
The German ''Bundesgesetzblatt (BGBl.) '' (''Federal Law Gazette'') is a public gazette of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is issued by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection
The Federal Ministry of Justice (german: Bu ...
, part 2, page 965". After the film ended, thousands of angry telephone calls, letters, and telegrams were received; some people even called the fictitious telephone number of the station and asked to register in the role of the hunted or a hunter. One woman wrote to put forward her husband's name to be hunted because the family needed the money.[
]
Rebroadcasts and DVD release
A mistake was made in securing the film rights
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
: WDR had acquired rights from Goldmann Verlag, publishers of the book ''Das geteilte Ich'' containing "Der Tod spielt mit", the German translation of Robert Sheckley's short story on which the film was based, but Goldmann did not own the film rights, only the rights for the book.[ The US-based owner of the film rights, Joseph Cates, father of ]Phoebe Cates
Phoebe Belle Cates Kline (born July 16, 1963) is an American former actress, known primarily for her roles in films such as ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), ''Gremlins'' (1984) and ''Drop Dead Fred'' (1991).
Early life
Cates was born ...
, prohibited further broadcasts and this was affirmed by the regional higher court Oberlandesgericht
An ''Oberlandesgericht'' (plural – ''Oberlandesgerichte''; OLG, en, Higher Regional Court, or in Berlin '' Kammergericht'': KG) is a higher court in Germany.
There are 24 OLGs in Germany and they deal with civil and criminal matters. They a ...
Frankfurt on 3 May 1977.[ Consequently, the film disappeared from television for more than 30 years after two broadcasts.
In 2002, the WDR acquired the rights from the current holder, ]StudioCanal
StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns ...
, and aired the film on 8 July 2002.[ It was shown again on 6 April 2006 by the WDR after the death of director Tom Toelle, on 24 November 2007 by the ]Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...
, on 11 April 2009 again by the WDR, and on 17 April 2010 to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the ARD.
Once the legal issues were resolved, the film was released on DVD in April 2009, together with Menge's 1973 teleplay '' Smog'', including interviews and documentaries with and about Wolfgang Menge and an audio commentary by leading actor Jörg Pleva.
Other
The film was rated FSK 12. In 1982, the same story was adapted in France under the title '' Le prix du danger'' ("The prize of danger"). In the same year, a novel by Stephen King, published in the U.S., told a similar story; the 1987 film '' The Running Man'' with Arnold Schwarzenegger is loosely based on this novel.[
The fictitious television show, including musical interludes, and the final sequence of the manhunt in the glass tunnel were filmed in the Gartlage hall in ]Osnabrück
Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...
, a building normally used for livestock auctions. The comedian Dieter Hallervorden, who played the leader of the Köhler gang, was then still at the beginning of his acting career; he became known by the mid-1970s for the slapstick series ''Nonstop Nonsense''.
The title music, 'Millionenspiel', was written and performed by the group Can and was released on the Lost Tapes
''Lost Tapes'' is an American television series that aired on Animal Planet. Produced by Go Go Luckey Entertainment, the program presents fictional found footage depicting traumatic encounters with creatures cryptozoological, supernatural, myt ...
CD in 2012.
Awards
Wolfgang Menge and Tom Toelle were awarded the 1971 Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...
for the best original dramatic program.
References
External links
*
Das Millionenspiel
filmportal.de
*Dieter Wenk
filmzentrale.com
Das Millionenspiel
sf-fan.de
krimiserien.heimat.eu
Inszenierte Wahrheit / Vor 40 Jahren: ARD zeigt die TV-Satire "Das Millionenspiel"
aref.de 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millionspiel, Das
1970 films
1970 television films
German science fiction television films
German-language television shows
West German films
1970s science fiction action films
German science fiction action films
Films based on short fiction
Adaptations of works by Robert Sheckley
Films about death games
1970s German-language films
1970s German films
Das Erste original programming