Timeout
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Timeout |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1965 |
| length | 82 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Theo Mezger |
| script | Arthur Hailey , Rolf Defrank |
| production | Süddeutscher Rundfunk |
| music | Rolf Unkel |
| camera | Horst Schalla |
| cut | Stella Niecke , Karin Biedermann |
| occupation | |
| |
Zeitsperre is a television game produced by Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) from 1965, directed by Theo Mezger and broadcast for the first time on October 16, 1965 in the joint ARD program. The television play is based on an original screenplay by Arthur Hailey .
action
It is around 6:00 p.m. Friday night in the Crown Canada Bank's South Branch in Winnipeg, Canada. The staff are busy doing the final work before the weekend. Colin Walker, who has to make arrangements with the branch manager Foster to close the bank vault, is picked up by his wife Lucie and his six year old son Steve. While he sets the time lock of the burglar-proof bank vault to 63 hours, his son Steve walks through the counter area of the branch with ease. Before Walker and his superior Foster can finally lock the steel chamber, both of them become aware of a car accident on the street in front of the bank. While they are rushing to the window to look at what is happening on the street, Steve tries out his new flashlight in the already darkened vault, unobserved by the two of them.
When Walker and Foster hurriedly return to the vault door shortly afterwards, they lock the vault without even looking into the vault. Immediately afterwards, Steve is missing from his parents. Evelyn Webb, a colleague, tells Colin that he surely let Steve out of the steel chamber. She watched him go inside. Foster and Walker immediately try to open the steel door again, but the time lock has already been activated: the bank vault cannot be opened until 9:10 a.m. the following Monday morning. The parents are still desperately looking for their son, but he is nowhere to be found in the bank building. Steve is locked in the steel chamber.
The police are alerted and a desperate rescue operation begins, led by Inspector Andrews and Policeman Brown. In addition to the psychological stress that the boy suffers from being locked in, it is feared that the oxygen in the vault will not be sufficient until Monday morning. First, Foster tries to locate Peter Dawson, the designer of the bank vault, through the bank headquarters. He is the only one who has knowledge of the exact structure of the vault and the time lock. But that evening, Dawson and his wife left for a vacation trip in the car. In the meantime, attempts have been made in vain to persuade Steve to unlock the lock from the inside by speaking with a megaphone. He cannot trigger the mechanism properly. Attempts by the welder Jarvis to open the safe door with a welding torch also fail . It is made of various hard and heat-resistant metals and is too thick.
Meanwhile, Dawson is wanted with announcements from Radio Winnipeg. After hearing this on his car radio, he breaks off his trip and reports to the police. The editor-in-chief of a newspaper offers to provide a helicopter for the quick transport back from Dawson to Winnipeg. The helicopter picks up Dawson and lands on the roof of the bank building. The time that Steve can still survive in the vault is extremely short according to new calculations by doctors, there is only a few hours of oxygen left. With the help of volunteers, Dawson succeeds in poking a hole in the wall at a specific point next to the vault door. He can get into the vault with one hand and release the lock from the inside. Steve is rescued at the last minute in an unconscious state.
background
The television play was mainly produced in black and white in the studios of the Süddeutscher Rundfunk Stuttgart. As was often the case at that time, electronic cameras and magnetic recording were used for studio recordings . The exterior shots and the shots showing the welding work in front of the safe were shot with film cameras .
criticism
Fifty years after its production, the television game is still regarded as a breathtaking and captivating film - just like its predecessor Flight in Danger .
Web links
- Timeout in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Time lock at filmportal.de
- Time lock in the German Broadcasting Archive