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Junkie Sybille (Sabine Sinjen) is found shot dead at the river shore, and that's enough for inspector Keller (Erik Ode) and his team (Günther Schramm, Reinhard Glemnitz, Fritz Wepper) to investigate. They soon find Sybille's mother Hilde (Lilli Palmer), who's naturally shattered by the news. But there's something odd about their relationship, as Sybille's mother lived with her, provided her with drug money and actually helped her shoot up - all in an effort to get her off the stuff. None of it worked, so a week ago Hilde left Sybille to go back to living with her husband, Sybille's dad (Hans Caninenberg), who's long given up on the girl. But the day of her murder, Hilde wanted to return in another effort to save Sybille, alas too late. There's one detail about the case that doesn't fit, if Sybille didn't have any money (with her mother gone), where did she get the heroin to shoot up from? So Hilde leads Keller and company through all of Sybille's favourite hang-outs, to finally determine that it was Zobel (Fritz Schmiedel), landlord of Sybille's favourite pub, who got her the stuff - out of pure pity, not because he was dealing or anything. It's only eventually that Sybille's dad joins up with the investigation - and it doesn't take Keller long to break him and make him admit that he shot his own daughter dead because she basically tore her mother down with her ...

Now this episode of Der Kommissar accomplishes the almost impossible, the culprit at the end feels totally pulled out of the hat rather than worked towards and is announced early on in the proceedings at the same time. And that said, Sybille's father's motive is at best very weak, and the logistics of the murder are at best questionable. In other words, not a perfectly thought through or structured episode. On the other hand, the acting especially from Lilli Palmer and Sabine Sinjen is pretty good, even if ever so often even they don't stand a chance against Herbert Reinecker's trademark stilted dialogue that ever so often includes what should have been inner monologue and in its wordiness and lack of freedom for interpretation destroys many an intimate scene - which really is part of the odd charm of the series (and this episode, too), even if it doesn't signal good writing.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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