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Der Kommissar - Die Nacht, in der Basseck starb
episode 60
West Germany 1973
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Wolfgang Staudte
starring Erik Ode, Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Fritz Wepper, Evelyn Opela, Joachim Bissmeier, Rosemarie Kirstein, Jürgen Goslar, Horst Tappert, Manfred Spies, Hannes Kaetner, Les Humphries and the Les Humphries Singers
written by Herbert Reinecker, series created by Helmut Ringelmann, Herbert Reinecker, songs performed by the Les Humphries Singers, title theme by Herbert Jarczyk
TV-series Der Kommissar, Harry Klein
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Upon arriving home late at night, night club owner Basseck (Jürgen
Goslar) is shot by somebody who has obviously had the keys to his
apartment - and it's up to inspector Keller (Erik Ode) and his men (Reinhard Glemnitz, Günther Schramm, Fritz Wepper)
to find out who that was. Now it wasn't hard to get one's hand on
Basseck's apartment keys as his business manager Kareis (Horst Tappert)
has kept them in his (permanently unlocked) office - and of course, as our
investigating heroes soon find out, they were stolen from there the night
of the crime. So Keller and company zero in on the most likely suspect,
Dana (Evelyn Opela), Basseck's most recent ex and one of the many girls he
has "persuaded" into prostitution. She though claims she has
been with a customer that night, Wagner (Joachim Bissmeier), and before
long that man can be tracked down. And cross-examined, he breaks down and
commits to the murder, his motive being that Basseck had driven his
childhood friend into prostitution and ultimately suicide and he wanted to
avenge her. And he used Dana, in her vulnerable state, and her
intimate knowledge of where the keys were, to gain access to Basseck's
apartment. A straight forward confession if there ever was one - but for
one flaw: The keys have since been returned to Kareis' office and Wagner
couldn't have achieved that feat. But of course, Keller has long figured
that Dana has been the actual murderer ... Of course, this
episode suffers from all the faults the usual episode of Der
Kommissar suffers from, from weak and sensationalistic scripts to
stilted dialogue, but what makes this one interesting is its directorial
inventiveness that beds the whole second half of the story into a musical
background, juxtaposing the lengthy confessions of Wagner and then Dana
with a performance of the Les Humphries Singers' feel-good music,
and it's really the contrast of the tunes and the graveness of the
situation that makes the whole thing work so well, and makes this, despite
all its shortcomings, actually worth a watch. On a sidenote,
not only does this episode (like the earlier episode
... wie die Wölfe) team up Fritz Wepper with Horst Tappert, who
would within a year become the leads in the long running,
Ringelmann-produced and Reinecker-penned series Derrick,
it also features a performance by Les Humphries (with his Singers) who
would compose Derrick's
title melody.
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