It Can't Always Be Caviar

It Can't Always Be Caviar
Directed byGéza von Radványi
Written byHenri Jeanson
Jean Ferry
Paul Andréota
Based onIt Can't Always Be Caviar
by Johannes Mario Simmel
Produced byArtur Brauner
StarringO.W. Fischer
Eva Bartok
Senta Berger
CinematographyFriedl Behn-Grund
Göran Strindberg
Edited byWalter Wischniewsky
Music byRolf A. Wilhelm
Production
companies
CCC Film
Comptoir d'Expansion Cinématographique
Distributed byEuropa-Filmverleih
Release date
  • 18 October 1961 (1961-10-18)
Running time
106 minutes
CountriesFrance
West Germany
LanguageGerman

It Can't Always Be Caviar (German: Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein) is a 1961 French-West German comedy thriller film directed by Géza von Radványi and starring O.W. Fischer, Eva Bartok and Senta Berger.[1][2][3] It was shot at the Spandau Studios in West Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Hertha Hareiter and Otto Pischinger. It is based on the 1960 novel of the same title by the Austrian writer Johannes Mario Simmel. It was followed be a sequel film This Time It Must Be Caviar, released later the same year. In 1977 a television adaptation of the novel was produced.

Synopsis

In 1939 before the outbreak of the Second World War, half-German London bank clerk Thomas Lieven travels to Berlin on a business trip. While there he is recruited by the Abwehr, who mistakenly believe he is already working for British intelligence and wish him to be a double agent.

Back in England he reveals what has taken place and joins their organisation. Sent to Paris he also finds himself recruited by the French secret service. Matters escalate further when war breaks out and in 1940 German forces advance on Paris.

Cast

References

Bibliography

  • Elsaesser, Thomas & Wedel, Michael . The BFI companion to German cinema. British Film Institute, 1999.
  • Jacobsen, Wolfgang. Käutner. Spiess, 1992.