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Der Kommissar - Der Tod fährt 1. Klasse
episode 8
West Germany 1969
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Wolfgang Becker
starring Erik Ode, Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Fritz Wepper, Emily Reuer, Helma Seitz, Rosemarie Fendel, Franz Schafheitlin, Martin Lüttge, Hans Jaray, Nikolaus Paryla, Wolfried Lier, Harry Engel, Leo Bardischewski, Tony Stahl, Hans-Dieter Jendreyko, Paul Glawion, Isabella Ott, Ursula Ludwig, Trude Heess, Marion Abel, Ursula Barlen
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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A dead girl is found in a night train compartment, and when inspector
Keller (Erik Ode) and his assistants - Grabert (Günther Schramm), Heines
(Reinhard Glemnitz) and Harry (Fritz Wepper) - investigate the train, they
find a young man, Abinger (Nikolaus Paryla), high-tailing it, capture him,
and he turns out to be the girl's ex. Abinger denies everything until his
father (Hans Jaray) calls and tells him to deny everything, upon which
Abinger promptly confesses. But while his assistants are quite happy to
have captured their killer, Keller decides to let Abinger go as he seems
to have confessed out of spite, and further investigations reveal tensions
between Abinger and his father. On top of that, Keller is quick to tie the
murder to three other murders that occured on the same line - and soon he
and his team investigate the three passengers that were on all three
trains, a businessman (Tony Stahl), a journalist (Hans-Dieter Jendreyko)
and a salesman (Paul Glawion), all man inconspicuous enough to be
suspicious, but no smoking gun to be found. So the investigations lead to
nowhere while young Abinger turns to the press, claiming he's the killer
just waiting for his arrest - which puts Keller and company under some
extra pressure. And thus, Keller's assistants come up with a trap for the
killer: On the next night train the three suspects are taking, Keller's
young secretary Helga (Emily Reuer) is to ride as bait. Keller's dead
against it, but behind his back, his crew go about it anyhow. And while
they're away, Keller puts two and two together and suddenly figures the
train's steward (Martin Lüttge) has to be the culprit. But when he wants
to call in his crew for an arrest, they're all gone, already riding the
night train. And their trap for the killer seems to be fool-proof, and
it's not long before they catch ... Abinger, who's by now really desparate
to be arrested. But while they're still dealing with Abinger, the steward
goes about strangling Helga, who's literally saved in the last second ... Mostly
a typical episode, with the trademark stilted dialogue and far-fetched
narrative points - especially young Abinger suffers from both unnatural
lines and less-than-believable motivations. But there are some nice scenes
of group dynamics in Keller's team in this one, which for one thing liven
up things by their almost (intentionally) comical rendition, and are also
key for the finale to work - and the finale works really well as a
suspense piece of its own, with Helga's almost-murder sure looking
suitably horrifying. And these are the aspects that make this one one of
the best episodes of the series.
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