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Derrick - Die Versuchung
episode 63
West Germany 1979
produced by Helmut Ringelmann, Claus Legal, Gustl Gotzler (executive) for Telenova/ZDF
directed by Erik Ode
starring Horst Tappert, Fritz Wepper, Willy Schäfer, Peter Fricke, Dany Sigel, Klaus Wildbolz, Heinz Moog, Andrea Dahmen, Karlheinz Lemken, Wilfried Blasberg
written by Herbert Reinecker, music by Frank Duval, title theme by Les Humphries
TV-series Derrick, Harry Klein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Möbius (Klaus Wildbolz) and Sossner's (Peter Fricke) business is going
down the drain, mainly because of a bad investment on Möbius' part, which
he not only freely admits, he also knows a way out: You see, while Möbius
himself isn't exactly well-to-do, his father-in-law Demmer (Heinz Moog) is.
But there's a catch, too, as Demmer doesn't like Möbius enough to just
give him the money - about DM900,000,-. And thus Möbius comes up with a
plan: To stage his own kidnapping and this way get a cool million out of
Demmer, which he of course will pay out of love to his daughter, Möbius'
wife Ingrid (Dany Sigel). Despite Sossner's reservations, they go through
with the plan, and at first everything goes according to plan, to the
point where police inspector Derrick (Horst Tappert) and his assistant
Harry (Fritz Wepper) are left completely in the dark. Even the handover of
the ransom, which Sossner is to throw out of his driving car down a
bridge. Observing this, the police under Derrick doesn't exactly act
inconspicuously, but somehow Möbius seems to have gotten away with the
money under their very eyes, while even leaving the briefcase used in the
handover behind - which is odd to say the least and suggests to Derrick
and Harry that something isn't quite right. Even with the ransom paid,
Möbius doesn't show up. Now Sossner is secretly Ingrid's lover, and he
lets her in on the whole kidnapping plot, and now they decide to go to
Möbius' hide-out - where they find him shot dead. Since that hide-out was
Sossner and Möbius' old office, Sossner drags Möbius to somewhere else
where he's bound to be found with no traces leading back to the company.
Sossner also confesses to Ingrid he has swapped the briefcase with the
money for an empty briefcase, but when he wants to show her, the briefcase
is gone. Derrick and Harry meanwhile find out that, without Sossner's
knowledge, Möbius has also involved his secretary (Andrea Dahmen) and her
brother (Karlheinz Lemken) in the plot, and upon learning Möbius got
killed, they break down and tell them about Sossner's involvement in
everything. So Derrick pays a visit to Sossner and tells him the ransom
money has been found - upon which, Sossner makes a dash to a trainstation
locker room where he has actually hidden the money (no idea why he
pretended it was stolen from him only minutes earlier), which is as good
as a confession that he has actually killed Möbius. Questions are of
course left open, like if Möbius' plan has gone as planned, how would
they explain the sudden money influx after his kidnapping? And why would
Sossner take Ingrid with him to "find" Möbius' body, and later
pretend the ransom money has been stolen? And why did Möbius involve all
these people into the kidnapping plot without Sossner's knowledge? So
frankly, this is plothole galore ... Pretty much a routine
episode of Derrick, remarkable mostly because it was the
first one to be directed by Erik Ode, not only a prolific director since
the 1950s, but also the lead in Der
Kommissar, the TV-series Derrick spun off of and
would eventually eclipse/replace. But Derrick was never
really a director's series but screenwriter Herbert Reinecker's
brainchild, as he would throw his basically featureless title character
and his relatable sidekick Harry into yet another ridiculously complicated
case with a few too many plotholes and a not super-satisfactory solution
following a silly trap laid out for the baddie, all accompanied by some
stilted dialogue - and as such, the series is actually oddly likeable,
maybe not for all the right reasons, but somehow the series is an
entertaining document of its day and age (even if the series' longevity -
it ultimately ran till 1998 - made it outstay its welcome eventually).
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