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Dr. Trotta (Paul Hoffmann), a highly respected man of wealth, is shot dead in the garden of his house, not long before his son Peter (Heinz Ehrenfreund) arrives at the place. Now the relationship between father and son wasn't exactly a happy one, which makes Peter a suspect, but when investigating with his men (Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Fritz Wepper), inspector Keller (Erik Ode) pays more attention to a pop record Dr. Trotta has been constantly playing. Fortunately the band on the record, the Joker Five (Klaus Wildbolz, Heino Czechner, Klaus Höring, Thomas Egg, Thomas Piper) just happen to be in town, and Keller decides to focus his investigations on them. As it turns out, they until recently had a singer, Jeanie (Silvia Lukan, singing voice by Daisy Door), who died only a few weeks ago. And as it turns out she has died from the after effects of an illegal abortion. Now the kid she had been carrying was Peter Trottas's, but she was pressured into having an abortion by his father without Peter's knowledge - or approval even, as he loved the girl and wanted to marry her. Since the band was very protective of Jeanie, they all had a motive to kill Trotta, and have only each other as alibi, claiming they were rehearsing at the time of the murder. But something about their openness persuades Keller to look for the killer somewhere else, and eventually he tracks down the man performing the abortion on Jeanie, Beiga (Kurt Klopsch) - just in time, as Peter was already out to kill him - and reasons he has killed Trotta as Trotta was so overcome by guilt after Jeanie's death that he wanted to report the whole thing to the police, which would have sent Beiga to prison - and of course, Keller's absolutely right ...

Now sure, there's plenty wrong with this episode, the portrayal of the rock band is beyond clichéed, the murder mystery is over-convoluted with the culprit pretty much pulled out of the hat, the dialogue's stilted (though not as much as in other episodes of the series), and the characters often act and react completely unnaturally, to the point of almost taking one out of the story. That said though, the episode is very tightly directed and has an almost cinematic feel to it, and Peter Thomas funky score, including the recurring theme song, is definitely worth a listen. So despite many shortcomings, one of the better episodes of the series.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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