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Der Kommissar - Der Tennisplatz
episode 50
West Germany 1972
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Theodor Grädler
starring Erik Ode, Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Fritz Wepper, Helma Seitz, Rudolf Platte, Peter Fricke, Evelyn Opela, Hermann Lenschau, Roger Fritz, Bruno Hübner, Dirk Dautzenberg, Kai Taschner, Hilde Brand, Wolfrid Lier, Susanne Schönwiese, Gusti Kreissl, Gaby Dohm, Heini Göbel, Dietrich Thoms, Egbert Greifeneder, Ralph Martens
written by Herbert Reinecker, series created by Helmut Ringelmann, Herbert Reinecker, music by Peter Thomas, title theme by Herbert Jarczyk
TV-series Der Kommissar, Harry Klein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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After Bechtold (Bruno Hübner), an alcoholic bum, is found murdered
sitting in a stolen car, inspector Keller (Erik Ode) and his men (Reinhard
Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Fritz Wepper) pick up investigations - and are
quick to find red sand on the murdered man's shoes, which means prior to
his death he must have been on a tennis court. And while his men take sand
samples of all the regional tennis courts, Keller befriends Biebach
(Rudolf Platte), Bechtold's best friend and fellow bum, and through him,
and plenty of deducing, he finds his way to a restaurant somewhere in the
outskirts where Bechtold was apparently eating with a person unknown -
even if the owner (Dirk Dautzenberg) vehemently denies this. But there's
something in the guy's denial that makes Keller suspicious, and then he
finds a tennis court right behind the restaurant that his men have somehow
overlooked, and finds two youngsters, Prewall (Peter Fricke) and Massner
(Roger Fritz), who use it quite regularly. They also denie ever having
seen Bechtold, but their denial is just not convincing enough, so Keller
remains on their trail, visits them in their mansion, even brings Biebach
along - and eventually Prewall confesses: Actually he and Massner and a
few others wanted to teach a dead drunk Bechtold to play tennis, which was
so humiliating that even the staff and guests of the afore-mentioned
restaurant came watching and laughing their heads off. And eventually,
Prewall drew a gun to make Bechtold dance, to ultimately, without motive,
shoot him dead ... There is some social commentary in this
episode about the mistreatment of the poorest in society, driven to hilt
in the flashback in the film's finale, which sure hits a nerve - but it's
all somewhat ruined by a rather poorly concocted whodunnit story that
fails to give its characters proper motivation and is plagued by writer
Herbert Reinecker's trademark stilted and meandering dialogue that
sometimes goes so far as to undermine solid plotpoints. Still, one has to
commend this one for trying, and for that it's one of the better episodes
of the series.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
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