Hardy Kruger Movies

Von Werra is an offbeat documentary which, while investigating the life of a historical figure, also explores the fine line between fact and fiction. Franz Von Werra was an aviator from one of Switzerland's most provincial regions, Canton Valais. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he volunteered as a fighter pilot for the Luftwaffe and his exploits made him a darling of the Nazi press. When Von Werra was shot down over England, he managed to pull off a miraculous escape which was later recounted in the British film, The One That Got Away. The actor who played Von Werra, Hardy Kruger, serves as narrator and chief investigator here as he and director Werner Schweizer set out to discover the real man behind the legend, who was reported to have said: "making war was terribly entertaining". With the use of archive footage, written memoirs, and interviews, the lives of Von Werra and Kruger are scrutinized side-by-side as intertwined dramas about the making of history, and the exploiting of it. ~ Connor McMadden, Rovi

The internationally produced The Inside Man was inspired by a true story. In 1981, a Soviet submarine ran aground on the coast of Sweden. The sub was carrying a hush-hush laser search device, which promptly vanished. In this 1984 recreation of the incident, Dennis Hopper is cast as the CIA agent assigned to track down the missing laser. Aided by young assistant Gosta Ekman Jr., Hopper finds himself in a life-and-death struggle with a variety of foreign agents, each with his own agenda. Hardy Kruger co-stars in this rugged adventure yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The action in this comedy is set within a 24-hour period, as unusual events unfold in the lives of two elderly sisters, Else (Elisabeth Bergner) and Hilde (Lilli Palmer). The sisters were living together in the family mansion in Hamburg when Else got tired of that life and hit the streets to make a go of it as a bag lady, collecting enough each week to send a regular five marks to an orphanage in India. Her older sister stayed in the mansion and made sure that Else always had enough to live on, without letting her know about it. One day -- at the beginning of the fateful 24-hour period -- Else gets evicted from her squatter's apartment in West Berlin and after she leaves with her cart and belongings, she makes a stop at the bank to send the weekly money to the orphanage. Fate has it that two thieves complete a bank robbery just as Else is leaving, throwing their loot into a flower truck by mistake -- much to their dismay and to the total ignorance of the truck driver. Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Hilde is right in the middle of a conversation with Harms (Hardy Kruger), her favorite man of the moment, when she is visited by banking representatives that tell her she has lost it all. Her money manager made some bad financial moves and ran her fortune to the ground, killing himself because of it. Else reads about his suicide in the newspaper, and decides she had better go console her sister -- but not alone. She unwittingly takes the two bank robbers with her, along with a street wino, and when she arrives, the bank robbers drop their facade and threaten to blow everything up if they do not get some cash soon. Meanwhile, Hilde's friend Harms is on the way to join them with the original loot from the bumbled morning robbery in his car (it had fallen out of the flower truck and into his vehicle). Soon everyone and the cash are going to be in one place -- a situation rife with possibilities ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The plot of this of this adaptation of the Daniel Carney's novel, sprinkled throughout a series of extended Sam Peckinpah-inspired action sequences, deals with a collection of mercenary toughguys -- Colonel Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton), Lieutenant Shawn Fynn (Roger Moore), Rafer Janders (Richard Harris), Pieter Coetzee (Hardy Kruger) -- who are hired to parachute into the African bush country and abscond with deposed African president Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona) and reinstall him as a reigning monarch of an African country, to satisfy British mercantile interests. The action sequences were successful enough to spawn a sequel -- appropriately titled Wild Geese II. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

When her 10-year-old daughter is killed by kidnappers, Madeleine (Annie Girardot) goes a little nuts. However, she is fully able to continue investigating what went wrong, despite badgering by news reporters and curious neighbors. Her 19-year-old son has behaved strangely throughout the whole ordeal, and eventually she confronts him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

With ornate imagery reminiscent of paintings from the story's 18th century period, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel depicts the rise and fall of a sensitive rogue in the British aristocracy. Young Irishman Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) leaves home to seek his fortune after apparently killing an English officer in a duel. Through a series of mishaps and accidents, Barry winds up fighting with the Prussian army in the Seven Years' War under the command of Capt. Potzdorf (Hardy Kruger); at war's end, Potzdorf enlists Barry to spy on a shady Chevalier (Patrick Magee). Instead, Barry joins up with the Irish Chevalier to flee Prussia and live as gamblers among Europe's elite. Wishing to climb even higher, Barry soon meets the beautiful Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson), marrying her for her fortune after her older titled husband dies. Her son Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali), however, despises the upstart Barry, and, regardless of how his mother may feel, sees to it that the re-named Barry Lyndon will never be able to stake his claim to the entrenched aristocracy. Coming after Kubrick's esteemed hits 2001 (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon opened with high expectations and met with decidedly mixed responses to its restrained tone. Even with Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director (and wins for Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Adapted Score), Barry Lyndon was a box office failure, as mid-'70s audiences increasingly turned away from such narrative challenges as its epic length and muffled emotions. Since then, Barry Lyndon has gained in stature, taking its place among the formidable artistic achievements of Kubrick's career. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

While in prison, aloof and stand-offish loner Eric (Hardy Kruger) longs to see his daughter, whom he remembers as a young girl. His manner brings him abuse from the other inmates and also from a guard (Raymond Pellegrin) who appears to enjoy the abusive side of his job. Eric is indeed The Loner. Then he receives a proposition from his guard and tormentor: if he robs the prison safe, the guard will help him escape. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this nasty drama, a 17th-century Italian nun's long repressed sexual passion is awakened when a handsome nobleman rapes her. Confused by her unholy emotions, the nun sees that the aristocrat is arrested. Unfortunately, the louse impregnated her and shortly after bearing his child, she helps him escape from prison. Reunited, the two embark upon a passionate affair. One day another nun sees the two making love. Unfortunately, she dies before she can tell anyone. Later the offending nun is captured and given a life sentence for having sex and helping to murder her colleague. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The true story of a tragic 1928 arctic expedition provides the basis for this adventure drama that was a joint Italian and Russian co-production. Peter Finch stars as General Umberto Nobile, who is visited in Rome by the ghosts of those whose lives were taken in his ill-fated mission forty years earlier. In flashback, Nobile recalls the attempt to cross the North Pole by flying dirigible, the Italia. When the airship crashes, Nobile and his crew are scattered across the ice, left to struggle against the freezing cold elements and local polar bears, among other hazards. In an effort to save the expedition, the great explorer Roald Amundsen (Sean Connery), the first man to reach the South Pole, is dispatched to rescue Nobile. When Amundsen disappears (never to be heard from again), an icebreaker is launched to bring national hero Nobile home, but at the expense of his crewmates. Although The Red Tent (1971) was considered a costly box office failure, the film did win a Golden Globe for Best English Language Foreign Film. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In this crime drama, filmed in Paris and Lebanon, a petty thief visits Beirut and gets involved with an old pal's plan to rob a high-stakes gambler. He also encounters a beautiful woman. He and she head for the mountains after he discovers that his enemy is out to get him. He later phones his pal and learns that his enemy is not going to kill him, instead he wants to assist with the robbery. The thief goes back to Beirut, but then decides not to do the caper. He then goes to the casino, observes the gambler, returns to his friends with the news that their mark has won it big, and leaves them. He and the woman leave to live a crime-free life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Salene (Mireille Darc) is a free-spirited female who tries to reform the petty thief Carl (Hardy Kruger) when she falls in love in this light romantic drama. She spends the majority of the film bedding down with men she chooses or are chosen for her by close personal friends. Salene and Carl run away together and leave his two cohorts to botch the planned robbery of a millionaire gambler. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Adapted from the novel by Jean Giono, this French drama was written for the screen and directed by filmmaker Marcel Camus and stars Hardy Kruger. Kruger plays Antonio, a father who embarks on a desperate search for his son, who has gone missing after killing a man who tormented and attacked him over the love of a woman. Clara (Catherine Deneuve) is the woman in question who assists Antonio along with Matelot (Charles Vanel), an elderly man also on the run. Co-starring Marilu Tolo and Andre Lawrence, La Chant do Monde was released in the U.S. under the title The Song of the World. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi