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Der Kommissar - Der Tod von Karin W.
episode 59
West Germany 1973
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Theodor Grädler
starring Erik Ode, Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Fritz Wepper, Ida Krottendorf, Simone Rethel, Harald Leipnitz, Niko Macoulis, Wera Frydtberg, Maria Schell, Annemarie Wendl, Dietrich Thoms
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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One evening, while getting cigarettes from a vending machine, Karin
(Simone Rethel) is shot and fatally wounded by a person unknown. She drags
herself into a nearby pub to call her mother Anna (Ida Krottendorf), but
dies before she can say much. Inspector Keller (Erik Ode) and his men (Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Fritz Wepper)
investigate, and it's not long before they notice the rather weird
relationship between Anna and her upstairs neighbours, siblings Margit
(Maria Schell) and Otto (Harald Leipnitz): Margit hates her with a passion
while Otto seems to have been in a relationship with her, even though
initially everybody denies this. But Keller and company dig into the past
of Karin and soon find out her mother had once sent her to youth welfare
because she wanted their place to herself to pick up and bring home men.
This however only went on for a month, And Anna didn't give up being a
cougar when Karin came back home, forcing the girl to hide in her own
room. But then one day, one of her conquests tried to rape Anna, and Karin
fetched Otto to save her mother - and Anna fell in love with him almost
immediately. So eventually, and despite his sister's protests, Otto moved
in with Anna. For a time then, she was on cloud nine ... until she had to
realize Otto's not so much after her but her daughter Karin. And
eventually, he confessed this to Anna, too, and told her he'd only stay if
she can make Karin have sex with him. So Anna persuades her daughter to do
just that, out of daughterly love. And now, with Karin dead Anna thinks
she has a lever to make Otto move in with her again. But of course, the
truth comes out - and eventually Karin's killer turns out to be ... Otto's
sister Karin, who has killed to ... save her brother I suppose. Now
I have to admit it's very easy to finger the culprit in this one - but
more because who's actually a supporting character heaps more suspicion
upon herself along the way than through any giveaways in the plot. Because
in fact, as an actual murder mystery, this episode of Der Kommissar
has little to offer as its psychological undercurrents are all incredibly
far-fetched and don't seem the least bit "real", there's also
screenwriter Herbert Reinecker's trademark stilted dialogue and the
inability of his character to act or react naturally, and the story's
unnecessarily seedy untertones. And frankly, when it comes to these
undertones, this episode actually becomes a bit disturbing, that the whole
thing revolves solely about a murder, while the maybe even bigger crime,
the sexual abuse of a minor, with the mother's consent, is treated rather
nonchalantly, as nothing but an interchangeable motive. So no, good crime
TV this is not, but a quite puzzling time capsule all the same.
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