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Der Kommissar - Als die Blumen Trauer trugen
episode 39
West Germany 1971
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Dietrich Haugk
starring Erik Ode, Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Fritz Wepper, Helma Seitz, Paul Hoffmann, Inge Birkmann, Heinz Ehrenfreund, Silvia Lukan, Klaus Wildbolz, Heino Czechner, Klaus Höring, Thomas Egg, Thomas Piper, Kurt Klopsch, Ruth Drexel, Lambert Hamel, Klaus W. Krause, Margit Weinert
written by Herbert Reinecker, series created by Helmut Ringelmann, Herbert Reinecker, music by Peter Thomas, song sung by Daisy Door, title theme by Herbert Jarczyk
TV-series Der Kommissar, Harry Klein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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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.
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