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Young Ralf (Oliver Ringelmann) has been kidnapped, and his rather well off parents (Eva Ingeborg Scholz, Erland Erlandsen) have already agreed to pay a healthy ransom - when suddenly he's found alive and well before any money has been paid, obviously abandoned by his kidnappers. The boy is questioned and claims one of the kidnappers was Toni Kerk (Wolfgang Müller), the family's caretaker's (Sepp Wäsche) son. The police dash to Toni's apartment but he's not in. Thing is, when they leave again they find Toni's dead body right in front of the building, apparently dropped there while they were inside. Now it's murder, and that's a case for inspector Keller (Erik Ode) and his team (Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Elmar Wepper), and they're quick to question Toni's landlady (Lisa Helwig), who is quick to tell them the names of Toni's close friends (Dieter Schidor, Bernd Herzsprung, Christian Reiner, Ekkehardt Belle, Andrea L'Arronge, Herbert Herrmann), who seem to hang out with one another all of the time. They're soon rounded up, but at first nothing can be pinned on them as they serve as one another's alibi - which of course doesn't prove they're guilty in any way. However, it's when Keller and company interview their parents that it turns out their alibis have holes, and rather gaping one's too. And when it's found out that one of these parents (Claus Biederstaedt) has a shed in the countryside, it's only a matter of time before Keller brings the boy there and the boy identifies it as his holding place. So all the youngsters are arrested, and it doesn't long before they break. And the story goes thus, after Ralf has recognized Toni they sent him out with the boy to shoot him dead, but Toni just couldn't kill the boy and instead released him. And then one of the youngsters (Christian Reiner) and shot Toni dead, just so his super-strict father (Dieter Borsche) wouldn't find out.

One of the staler episodes of Der Kommissar as it's less based oin deductive thinking as a good whodunnit ought to be, and more of a mere series of interviews that basically lead to one clue after the next in a very straightforward way. The problem with this is though that the characters all act very unnaturally (a problem shared with many Herbert Reinecker-written crime shows), and stilted dialogue (another Reinecker trademark) doesn't help in bringing realism to the proceedings. So the motives for both the kidnapping and the murder are at best murky - and that's not even talking about why the youngsters dropped Toni's body on his own doorstep somewhere in Munich and thus risk getting caught rather than maybe burying him in the countryside, or something to that end. Frankly this element seems to be thrown in merely to get the story going, a story that ultimately peters out a tad too quickly. Some nostalgic fun still mind you, but there are better and also (unintentionally) funnier entries into the series out there.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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