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Der Kommissar - Geld von toten Kassierern
episode 9
West Germany 1969
produced by Helmut Ringelmann for Neue Münchner Fernsehproduktion/ZDF
directed by Georg Tressler
starring Erik Ode, Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Emily Reuer, Helma Seitz, Siegfried Lowitz, Eva Brumby, Monika Zinnenberg, Götz Burger, Rosemarie Fendel, Hartmut Reck, Kurt Jaggberg, Eduard Linkers, Dietrich Thoms, Wolfgang Stumpf, Peter Martin Urtel, Hanna Seiffert, Barbara Bertram, Birgit Bergen, Hannes Kaetner, Karl-Heinz Peters, Fritz Korn, Horst Raspe, Peter Dornseif
written by Herbert Reinecker, series created by Helmut Ringelmann, Herbert Reinecker, music by Peter Thomas, title theme by Herbert Jarczyk
TV-series Der Kommissar
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A bank clerk turns up dead after a bank robber has broken into his
home, conveniently placed right above the bank, has forced him to open the
safe, and has then killed the clerk for reasons unknown. Inspector Keller
(Erik Ode) and his team - Grabert (Gunther Schramm), Heines (Reinhard
Glemnitz) and Helga (Emily Reuer) - investigate, and Keller soon comes up
with a bankrobber, Kranz (Siegfried Lowitz), who has worked a similar
modus operandi, always breaking into bank clerks' apartments located above
their banks (weirdly enough, there were many of them) at night to force
them to open their safes. Kranz though has never used any kind of violence
let alone killed anyone. However, as it turns out Kranz has only recently
been released from prison. But for the time of the robbery, he has an
airtight alibi, as he does for another such robbery the next night - where
the bank clerk in question was knocked out. Now Keller suspects Kranz to
be involved somehow but doesn't figure him to be a murderer, so he has one
of his friends, Mierich (Kurt Jaggberg), who has just acted a bit too
suspicious, followed, and soon ties him to a murderer in jail, Möricke
(Hartmut Reck), and a mysterious woman, Mrs. Albinger (Hanna Seiffert),
who seems to stay at the same hotel every time a bank is robbed after
Kranz's method. Eventually, Keller and company can pin everything down,
the bank that's to be robbed next and the day it's to be robbed, so Heines
hides in the bank clerk's (Wolfgang Stumpf) apartment, Helga has a few
drinks at Kranz's favourite pub, and Keller and Grabert are at the hotel
Mrs. Ablinger stays at, and ... the robbery can be prevented, and the next
day, Keller has all the suspects come to his office, and it turns out that
Kranz has sold the "copyright" to his robberies to Mierich for a
share in the loot, Mierich has gotten in touch with Mrs. Albinger who's
acually the wife of Möricke, and Möricke has actually persuaded his
guard Seybold (Eduard Linkers) to get him out of jail every once in a
while so he can you-know-what his wife, while really he was doing the
actual robberies - first and foremost to support his wife since he's
already a lifer ... Now I'm no expert, but it sounds rather
unlikely that bank clerks, as a rule, would have their apartments upstairs
from the banks they are working at, much less that many to make a business
out of it - which is this episode's main premise to make the story work.
Also, it seems less than likely for thieves to pay copyright fees to other
thieves - again, no expert of course, but ... So with two major plotpoints
suspending disbelief to such a rate, can this be a good episode? Well, not
from the murder mystery angle of course, as there are actually more than
these two central points that are too far-fetched. But Siegfried Lowitz as
the main suspects sure gives a spirited performance as the ex-con trying
and failing to find his footing in modern society - even if the script
tries to hammer home that point a bit too violently - and he and Erik Ode
play well off one another. So not one of the best episodes for sure, but
entirely watchable.
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