Underplayed Gems

More Than Life at Stake (1968)

More Than Life at Stake poster
Original title
Stawka większa niż życie
Directed by
Andrzej Konic
Genre
espionage television series, war television series
Country
Polish People's Republic, Poland
Length
1 season, 18 episodes
Rated
16+
Rating
8.0 of 10 from 32 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A Polish secret agent works undercover as a German officer in the Abwehr during World War II. He carries out dangerous missions while trying to avoid being exposed by his SS adversary.

tensesuspensefulmelancholicgrittyslow-burnatmosphericbleakserious

What happens

More Than Life at Stake (Polish: Stawka większa niż życie), also known as Stakes Larger Than Life and Playing for High Stakes, is a Polish black and white TV series about the adventures of a Polish secret agent in Soviet service, captain Hans Kloss (real name Stanisław Kolicki, codename J-23), who acts as a double agent in the Abwehr during Second World War in occupied Poland. Its precursor was a continuing television play of the same name, broadcast live in 1965 by Telewizja Polska. 14 installments were made (aired as part of the anthology series Teatr Telewizji), with the two main characters, the protagonist, Abwehr Hauptmann Hans Kloss, and his key antagonist, SS-Obersturmführer Hermann Brunner, portrayed respectively by actors Stanisław Mikulski and Emil Karewicz. The popularity of the play led to the creation of the TV series; Mikulski and Karewicz returned to portray Kloss and Brunner. The series was filmed from March 1967 to October 1968. There were 18 episodes, 9 of which were directed by Janusz Morgenstern and the other 9 by Andrzej Konic. The show was very popular in Poland, the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. Re-runs are regularly broadcast on Polish TV. Both the character of Hans Kloss, and that of Max von Stierlitz, the protagonist of the similarly themed Russian TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring, were allegedly inspired by the real-life exploits of Nikolai Kuznetsov, who successfully infiltrated Nazi armed forces under the guise of a German officer. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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