DCSIMG
 
 

Siegfried Kernen Movies

1988  
 
Willi (Dominique Horwitz) has a very wealthy father who owns a bank. He has been given a great deal in his life. What he doesn't have is any respect from his family. In a last-ditch effort to get treated intelligently, he decides to rob his father's bank, but when a safety alarm is tripped and the police are well on their way, it looks like he has failed again. However, two of the customers in the bank suggest that he should take them as his hostage. From there on, it begins to look as though Willi has done something right, while his "hostages" mastermind the heist and subsequent escape in return for half the loot. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Dominique HorwitzSuzanne von Borsody, (more)
 
1986  
 
This drama is set within the international corporate world and centers on a highly principled executive for an international drug-manufacturer who just prior to his retirement decides to blow the whistle on his dishonest colleagues who have involved themselves in the illegal South American drug trade. His company retaliates and in the end manages to destroy the executive's personal and professional life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

 Read More

 
1985  
 
This entertaining thriller, set along Germany's northern seacoast in the deserted off-season, is garnished with a dash of comedy and easily carried by its two main protagonists: Flutterer, a police detective (Bernard Fresson) and Zorro (Oliver Stritzel) a petty criminal who has to be escorted to a safe haven. Zorro is the unfortunate witness to a Mafia assassination, and if he is going to be around to testify in court against the killers, he needs to be well-hidden in the meantime. Assigned to that job is the burned-out Flutterer, and although the two men are an unlikely team, that is exactly what they become when someone -- either organized crime or crooked cops -- is out to silence both of them, permanently.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Bernard FressonOliver Stritzel, (more)
 
1985  
 
Herbie Melbourne (Didi Hallervorden) is a poor schlemiel who is inadvertently caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea in this German farce about a cab driver (Hallervorden) assigned to bring a "comrade" back to the East German side of the Berlin wall, a passenger who is dead to the world, permanently, when he arrives. Herbie the cabbie is recruited by the KGB and East German Intelligence to help them discover who murdered the man in his back seat. After arriving on the West German side of the divide, Herbie is then recruited by the CIA and West German Intelligence to become a counterspy, for double what the other side is paying him. As Herbie seems to have no viable way out of this mess, he does what many have done before him, he goes to a therapist (Catherine Alric) for help. Reaching into her bag of tricks, the therapist gives Herbie a small bottle he can sniff when in need of self-confidence, an act guaranteed to put him on top of any situation. Now Herbie is a cabbie, a KGB agent, a CIA agent, and a bottle sniffer -- and he is falling in love with his gorgeous therapist. Although the standard chase routines are a bit lengthy and exaggerated, this spy spoof keeps its sense of humor intact.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Dieter HallervordenCatherine Alric, (more)
 
1984  
 
The norms of hospital practices are turned upside-down in this complex drama about how many rights are denied patients who do not conform. At the beginning of the story, a man is found lying on the side of the road and is brought in to the police station as a probable vagrant, but he has no memory and seems to have lost his powers of speech. Perplexed and defeated by their unsuccessful attempts to make him talk, the police send the man over to the hospital for examination by psychiatrists. After some time, it becomes apparent that he understands everything going on around him and is simply refusing to talk. This sets off a series of antagonistic actions on the part of the hospital staff, suspicious about his "purpose" in remaining silent. Although some explanation is discovered as to why he is this way, the supposedly sane doctors and staff come off looking like they may need treatment themselves. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

 Read More

Starring:
Michael KönigLisi Mangold, (more)