Reviews

This was not the book I read back in the seventies, and the first movie of 1971 was much better.

I do not mind that the TV play was set in Berlin, 1996 and not in Vienna, 1969. The idea of moving the play closer to nowadays was all right.

Valerie Steinfeld had only one appearance, when she poisoned old Senor Aranda. She was described as quite a character, so why was her part reduced so much? Where was the paternity trial that Valerie Steinfeld attempted during the Third Reich? It was a main issue in the book. Where was the bashful, so-called father of Heinz Steinfeld? Carlo Rola omitted important parts of the original plot, the most interesting characters and concentrated on the love-that-can't-be-story between Manuel Aranda and Irene.

I was not the only one who wept when Manuel Aranda was shot in the first movie, so perhaps the TV play had a better ending.

Sorry, it might be a good movie, but only if you did not read the book or watch the first movie. Alain Noury was a much better Manuel Aranda than Heino Ferch.

This is the story of the American writers Clifford Irving and Richard Suskind who wrote a completely faked autobiography of the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. They were very sure that nobody would believe the book to be a fake, not even their publisher. After all, who cares about the denials of an invisible person who might be somewhat insane? The two authors did a thorough research job about the life of Howard Hughes and successfully spun a legend why Hughes wanted to have an "authorized autobiography" after all and how the interviews had taken place in conspiracy style. They tricked their publisher into an advance of several 100,000 $, to be paid both to the authors and to Howard Hughes. The advance was paid by check. The check for Hughes was deposited into a Swiss bank account run by Irving's wife under the fake name of Helga Renate (=H.R.) Hughes.

The publisher tried to verify the manuscript with a specimen of Hughes' handwriting and still believed the authors when Hughes had everything denied. In the end the Swiss authorities found out about the fake bank account and the two authors eventually went to jail.

The authors had to tax the advance fee and ran into a huge debt when they additionally had to return the advance to the publisher. Richard Suskind played himself in the TV play, probably because he needed every additional cent after his prison sentence. So it became a documentary with a particularly good source and the best available adviser.

Some ten years later a similar thing happened in Germany with the faked "Hitler diaries".

"Der Staudamm" was a mini-series about the genuine and invented adventures that take place at the construction site of a dam in Austria. They are told from the viewpoint of the chief engineer (Horst Niendorf) and his personal assistant (Wolfgang Condrus).

Some stories might have been true, others were well-invented, e.g.

• Several immigrant workers from Italy have a personal feud, Mafia-style. All Italian workers consider their behavior as normal, the others as outrageous.

• Two workers make a bet: sit down on a box of explosives, with the fuse lit. The one who runs away first is a coward and has lost (but what about the other one?!). The assistant finds a way to find out the more courageous without endangering the other one (and without telling his boss, who would readily have sacked him).

The mini-series ended with the completion of the dam, and therefore there could be no more sequels later on. Sadly, the series was hardly ever rerun. But if you ever come to Raggal, Austria (Vorarlberg, Bludenz County) do not fail to visit the dam.

This is the story of the former Wehrmacht soldier Lehmann, who makes a big career on the Black Market of Hamburg after the end of World War II. It all starts nearly by coincidence with the sale of a few dozen stolen silver spoons.

Later, he is involved in about any illegal business like producing moonshine "schnapps", slaughtering hogs in a bathtub, trading stolen goods with the British Army and the like. He even keeps his business running when he is jailed and cannot bribe himself free.

The whole thing ends all of a sudden on June 21, 1948. On this day the Deutsche Mark is introduced. The old Reichsmark becomes worthless, and Lehmann's experience and connections are no longer needed, because the black market ceases to exist.

The author admits that he was involved in black-market business himself and his character Lehmann might be somewhat autobiographic.