Vier gegen die Bank is a 1976 German crime comedy television film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It was adapted from the novel The Nixon Recession Caper by Ralph Maloney and was produced for the German television station ARD. In 2016 it was remade under the same title for theatrical release.
Plot
Hartmut Wredel, a respected lawyer, is left unemployed by the recession. At his golf club he discovers that three other members have not paid their membership dues for a while. The men, out-of-work actor Peter Pagodi, fashion designer Benedict Hoffmann, and garage owner Gustav Blümel, have also been hit hard by the recession. Wredel convinces them that a bank robbery is the solution to their problems. They successfully carry out the plan and even escape imprisonment because the police blame the robbery on a separate group of terrorists who were also planning to rob the same bank.
Cast
Harald Leipnitz as Peter Pagodi
Walter Kohut as Hartmut Wredel
Günther Neutze as Gustav Blümel
Herbert Bötticher as Benedict Hoffmann
Ingrid van Bergen as Uschi Blümel
Christine Schuberth as Gaby Pagodi
Karin Eickelbaum as Angelika Hoffmann
Gitty Djamal as Christa Wredel
Otto Sander as Bankleiter
Hans Schulze as Hauptkommissar Röse
Uwe Dallmeier as Kommissar Ludendorf
Karl-Heinz von Hassel as Gangster Manfred
Hans Dieter Trayer as Kriminalassistent
Joachim Regelien as Erster Komplize
Wolf Richard as Zweiter Komplize
Ulli Chivall as Dritter Komplize
Helmut Alimonta as Kfz-Meister
Leopold Gmeinwieser as Taxifahrer
Horst Pasderski as Feinkosthändler
Production
The film was shot in and around Munich in July 1976.