Four versions of the same man argue about his life choices — and he's losing every debate.
The author Peter Ustinov has called his work "Endspurt" a "biographical adventure". Biographical because the somewhat ambitious but later successful writer Sam Kinsale meets here as a twenty-, forty- and sixty-year-old. The interesting thing about this film, however, is that the four Sams are confronted with each other. The diversity of an eighty-year-old life becomes transparent. At the age of 20, Sam Kinsale loves the young Stella and is determined to marry her. But 20 years later, he is fed up with the marriage and wants to leave her. But he doesn't because she is expecting a child. As a sixty-year-old, he is constantly making compromises both in his work as a writer and in his personal life.
Acting
Four actors creating one fractured, fascinating ego.
Writing
Ustinov's theatrical dialogue bites hard.
Direction
Meyen stages intimate confrontation like psychological combat.
Director
Harry Meyen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Heinz Rühmann, playing the oldest Sam, was Germany's most beloved comic actor — casting him as silent witness subverts his entire career.
Made for German television in 1970, this exemplifies the era's 'Fernsehfilm' tradition: ambitious literary adaptations bringing theatrical experimentation to living rooms.
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