Dieter Hallervorden Movies

This romantic comedy finds a married couple taking a honeymoon after seven years of marriage. Hannelore (Liselotte Pulver) and her husband Lukas (Dieter Hallervordern) start off for Rome in their Volkswagon but run out of gas. An opportunistic local offers to help them and then helps himself to Lucas' money. While Lukas goes after the thief, Hannelore is enamored with an Italian playboy (Alberto Farnese). She quickly succumbs to the advances of the Lothario. Her husband gets back the money and takes pity on the thief, a father of 12 whose wife is soon expecting the 13th. Lukas refuses to press charges and Hannelore returns to Lukas after her affair with her Italian lover. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

One of Roman Polanski's lesser-known films, Diary of Forbidden Dreams (also known as What?) stars Sydne Rome as an attractive young hitchhiker who, as the film opens, accepts a ride from three men in a car, who later attempt to rape her. She escapes their clutches and makes her way to a mansion owned by millionaire Joseph Noblart (Hugh Griffith), who is overseeing a decadent party. Among the guests at his home are a pair of table-tennis players, a man with a harpoon (played by Polanski himself), and a hedonistic pimp played by Marcello Mastroianni. The woman's sexually charged adventure is an homage to Alice in Wonderland. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A married couple decide to take their family vacation in Sardinia - the whole family, meaning the grandmother, teenage children, and a small tot. The combination is soon to develop problems in togetherness as their interests are worlds apart: the father has his TV show tapes to watch, while one of the children brought along a hamster collection, and Grandma came equipped with her culinary favorites. Complicating matters is the fact that the couple were on the verge of deciding on a divorce, and this vacation may be just the catalyst they need. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this uneven, predictable comedy that is less black than gray, a series of murders eliminates the poverty-stricken heirs to a 10 million-dollar fortune while Didi Dodel (Dieter Hallervorden, also the director) the unsuspecting main heir, blithely escapes the attempts on his life. After a wealthy miser dies and leaves his fortune to Didi and five others, the five each hit upon the idea of eliminating Didi from the list (Didi does not know he has been named), but they do not realize how fate can step in and alter the best and worst of intentions. As the blissfully ignorant Didi continues on his way, the other heirs start knocking each other off until only Didi is left -- along with the unscrupulous estate lawyer who has his eye on the money. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Since the lead comedian in this film has numerous devoted fans in Germany, it was a guaranteed box-office draw in that country. However, foreign reviewers were less inclined to overlook the clumsy writing and gross, even offensive, humor (some of it homophobic) of the movie. The story concerns the efforts of a man (Dieter Hallervorden) who made his living as a comedian in the former East Germany who hopes to repeat his success in the newly reunified Berlin while he looks for his daughter, whom he hasn't seen for years. His former stage partner owns a phony investment firm which is designed to milk the savings from unsuspecting East Germans, and his wife is desperate to get into the comedian's pants. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide