Fraud People In The Great Film: Quiz Show

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2009)

One of the biggest show scandals of 1950's of America, turned into a great film, Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford in 1994. There are three main characters in the film: Charles Van Doren, Herbert Stempel and the lawyer Dick Goodwin. The film tells the story of the two contestants who win money unfairly in the quiz show Twenty One. First, Stempel plays in the show, answers all the questions and gets to be Twenty One champion. He wins a lot of games in the show. After that, the producers and the sponsor of the show, Geritol, want a new contestant against Stempel. They finally find a contestant, Charles Van Doren, who is an instructor at Columbia University. The producer of the show offers to Van Doren to rig the show for him and Enright, the producer of the show, treats Stempel to lose the game to Van Doren and Stempel will be offered a spot on a panel show after his loss. Although Stempel knows very well the answer of the movie questions in the show, he gives a wrong answer and Van Doren becomes the champion of the show. Van Doren is the new champion and rises to national stardom very quickly. After all of that, the lawyer Goodwin suspects about many things and investigates them deeply.
When Stempel goes very well in the quiz show, the producer and sponsor of the show does not want him in the show anymore. Because their flagging ratings are getting worse because of Stempel's bad-looks. They want a handsome and good-looking contestant to be watched more. Because of this reason they find Van Doren who is handsome, coming from a rich family of America, good-looking and an instructor in a university. They treat Stempel to give a wrong answer in the show. Also they promise him he will be a new star of the coming another show. Stempel admits their offers and even if he knows the correct answer, he gives the wrong answer of the movie question. They make Van Doren a new champion unfairly and offer him to rig the show. They offer to him to give all of the correct answers of the show. He accepts all of their proposals and wins a lot of games show by show and becomes a big star in the country. Also he earns a lot of money unfairly from the show. Although he does not deserve this, he buys a lot of expensive things that change his life suddenly.
After all of that, the lawyer Dick Goodwin investigates the producers and sponsor of the Quiz Show deeply. He wants to find their fraud to Stempel and to the people of America. Finally, he proves their fraud by videos and some letters that were given to the contestants, having the answers of the questions. Their crimes are proved and they go to a committee of Congress. Van Doren, the producers and the sponsor of the Quiz Show admit their fraud in front of the people. Their reliabilities got lost from all the people, and they lost their career because of their fraud.